Good Day Sunshine
by Obsessive01928
Summary: When the children of the famous characters of J.K Rowling and their friends go to Hogwarts, there's bound to be plenty of humor, trouble, and romance. What will Hogwarts have to face, and what excitement will you get to read about? R
1. Because

**Hi everyone! (I'm hoping that SOMEONE'S reading this.) Please read and review! I hope you all enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable from the Harry Potter series that belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Victoire Weasley was beaming uncontrollably. Today was one of the Weasley gatherings and her best friend, Xevera Zillia was going to be coming too. She, Xevera, and some of their other friends would be starting Hogwarts next week, and all of them couldn't have been happier. Victoire had been setting up all day for the gathering, helping her mother look through spell books for certain charms for table settings, and for cooking.

'Oh zees eez a deezastair!' Fleur Weasley cried, looking around at a beautiful garden and clean house, putting Victoire and the rest of the family in a state of confusion. Everyone knew that this was important to Fleur, but not many people got the, "pleasure," of seeing it truly shine.

'What's the matter sweetheart?' Her husband, Bill Weasley, the oldest of the Weasley brothers, tried to say in a caring tone, but kept his distance. Nobody wanted to face Fleur in this sort of state. Her part veela nature gave her some… anger problems, and currently her silvery blonde hair was looking unkempt.

'What do you mean "what eez wrong?" Look at all of us!' The other four Weasleys, Bill, Victoire, her younger sister Dominique, and younger brother Louis, all looked down at their clothing. In most situations, doing this usually causes a dawning of, "Oh," as they usually tend to, but the Weasleys remained just as confused as ever. 'We're not ready, clozeeng wize! We need to look nice! Zees eez the first time Molly haz given us the honor of hosting zee greeting!'

'Mum, no one ever dresses nicely for these,' Victoire said, taking a brave step towards her mother, as she could hear her father and siblings holding their breaths. It was true, children were usually running and screaming, ripping clothes and getting hurt. But Victoire knew her mother didn't see it as it was, especially considering her current nerve state. Fleur's red puffy eyes seemed to become calm, and she looked down, contemplating what her daughter had just said. After a few seconds of the three Weasleys praying that they would survive the next ten minutes, Fleur finally gave in.

'Oh alright! I guess you're right! But I steel want to see all of you get into some cleanair cloze.' And with that she marched straight back into the house to check up on the food.

Bill and his children stood there for a moment, caught up in the tension, and after a moment of letting the information sink in, they all awkwardly went to what they thought they should be doing.

Victoire headed straight up for her bedroom and collapsed on the bed, not quite sure she was ready to see all of her family. She looked around her bright pink bedroom and her eyes found just what she was looking for; her over-sized white-board. It had a few photos here and there of her and her friends, (wizarding photos of course, not like those strange muggle ones that Xevera would sometimes show to Victoire. She simply couldn't understand how they could stay that still!) Xevera was there in a good majority, and Teddy was in a few, along with her famous cousin, the great James Potter.

Oh Teddy, she hadn't seen Teddy in ages, and was actually kind of glad. Teddy was just so... Teddy, and she could only take so much of him. She had known Teddy and James for as long as she could remember, and they hadn't changed very much either. James, had teased them that they liked each other when they were young, but they had simply been through way too much to ever like each other, ugh! The idea was just too revolting!

Then there was Xevera. Victoire actually laughed out loud at the thought of her outspoken friend. She had met Xevera when she was nine, Xevera was a muggle born, but had an older French cousin that had turned out to be a witch, Dinah, although she went to Beauxbatons. ('I swear the whole lot is a load of slutty smartarses,' Xevera would say, to which Fleur would leave the room.) She had shown magic when she was eight at school. A boy had been constantly bullying her, and when he had insulted her on the playground one day, she accidentally made him shoot straight up into the air, and the ministry had found him a day later, hanging on for dear life off of the Eiffel tower.

Dinah had taken Xevera to Diagon Alley to show her where she'd be going to get supplies before she went to Hogwarts. While Dinah had been off looking at dresses in Madame Malkin's, Xevera had wandered into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and met Uncle George. Victoire had been there at the time, and the girls instantly found a spark. They spent the entire day together, testing out new products.

Xevera was a total prankster like George was in his school days with his late twin, Fred. Victoire had taken a rare liking to Xevera, as she was outspoken, loud, and rambunctious. (A little too much for her own good too.) Everyone knew that Xevera was Uncle George's favorite niece, even if she wasn't related by blood, and they couldn't blame him.

The one thing about Xevera that had ever bothered Victoire was Xevera had a secret, which she used too often to escape things she didn't want to deal with. She hadn't told many people about it, and as for the people who did know, she wouldn't even tell them what it was she was avoiding. It annoyed Victoire that she wouldn't stop using the secret, as without it, things would be a lot easier. But even so, through the years Xevera had become family, and so Victoire kept it to herself.

Xevera had never been to a proper Weasley gathering, meaning she had only met bits of the family. So Victoire was absolutely bursting with excitement to introduce Xevera to Teddy, and to have Xevera see James again. Xevera always teased James, and it drove him nuts, but he never had the guts to do anything, considering the opposing kid had a mouth that went off just about every three seconds.

Victoire smiled to herself at the thought of her dirty-mouthed friend, nuzzling into a pillow lying next to her. She couldn't remember the last time she got one of her friends to come in her room. James and Teddy hated it of course, especially since for some strange reason, Teddy couldn't get his hair to stop turning pink every time he walked in. Xevera would pretend to gag, then proceed to choke and die every time she walked in, always making her "last words", 'Too... Much... Pink.'

It was true, the room was excessively pink, and Xevera was always making her promise to not put so much pink in their dorm when they went to Hogwarts. (Assuming they would be in the same house.) Her room had bright pink wallpaper with light pink daisies on it. They were charmed so that whenever there was a breeze, the flowers would move with it. The bed was a floating pink puff, with baby pink covers, and was piled with tons of stuffed animals. In fact, when she looked at it, Xevera was right. It _did_ look like a pink monster had puked all over it, although she couldn't help but think that this monster had very beautiful vomit. Ew. That was a lot less disgusting the first time she thought about it that way. She wrinkled her nose for the affect, even though she was the only one in the room.

Victoire sat up from the bed, and looked at the room, her eyes landing on her crystalline clock. Crap! 4:00, everyone would be here in a half an hour if not less! Victoire ran over to her closet and started ripping her clothes off, tearing things out of the closet to see if they were to her liking. She tried on skirt after skirt, top after top, and occasionally a pair of shorts. Finally after 15 minutes of ripping things out and throwing them back in, Victoire stuck with one outfit.

She had on some dark purple converse that went up to the knee, a flowing light pink skirt with some shorts of the same color underneath, and topped it off with an orange t-shirt that had pretty beading of a hibiscus. She looked at her reflection, and couldn't help but think how much she looked like her mother, placing a hand on her hip, and striking a quick pose. She had lower cheekbones and bright blue eyes, along with silver hair that fell over her shoulders in plaits. She had a pointed nose like her father's and her eyes were the same shape as his.

Just as she was smiling to herself, her mother burst in the room, clearly trying to keep composure, but failing to do so. While her hair was staying in place, her face was shining with sweat, and she had a manic look on her face as she sported a pant. The Weasleys had arrived. 'Teddy and James weel be 'ere soon weez granny Tonks!' She cried, but continued, storming over to Victoire, 'But I can't deal weez her, pleaze, I love 'er, but sheez too much!' Her mother had taken the liberty at this point to grab the front of Victoire's shirt. After a moment of doing the math, Victoire pushed her mother off gently and sighed, going past her to race down the stairs. Just as she suspected, sitting in the kitchen, talking about a hundred miles a minute to her poor father, was Xevera.

'So anyways I was thinking that maybe if cupcake ninjas took over the world-'

'Oh look it's Victoire here you go Vic! Sure that would've been - interesting but I must go.' And with that her father rushed into the garden. Victoire couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friend's madness and her father's fright, but all the same Victoire jumped in front of her troubled-looking friend and both faces instantly lit up. 'Vic! It's you!' She attacked Victoire with a hug that crushed the life out of her. 'Hah! Hey there Xevera!' Once she was released she got a proper look of Xevera up and down.

She was wearing a green gob-stopper t-shirt, and over that she was wearing overall shorts, although one of the straps had already come undone. This came as no surprise, considering the only thing Xevera did was climb trees and "explore." She even had a bit of dirt on her nose and her orange converse had dirt clogged deep into the bottom, although Victoire knew that, unlike herself, Xevera didn't give a crap about what she wore. Xevera was grinning ear to ear and Victoire couldn't help but smile back. 'Has James gotten here yet?'

'No, is Mia coming?'

'No, can't. Stupid stickler muggles.'

Victoire giggled at the comment and they went out into the garden talking and joking all the way. Victoire had last seen Xevera on Victoire's birthday which everyone had attended, except Teddy, which had been a little over a month ago, so they talked about pretty much everything. Although most conversations consisted of Xevera making dead pan comments, and Victoire laughing till she had stitches in her side. 'So did you know James has a pimple on his nose?'

'Yeah, so?' Victoire didn't quite see what the big deal was.

Xevera grew an evil grin on her face as they continued walking. 'I named it Peppy.'

'You named it what?' Let out a short laugh, typical.

'Drives him nuts, and the great thing is, he thinks that if he acts like he doesn't care, I'll stop teasing because I'm not getting a reaction. But I know that it's killing him on the inside, so he finally gives in. And the outcome? Worth it. So whenever I see him I say, "Oh hey there James, oh Peppy, hi!"' Xevera laughed.

'Is it really that big?' Victoire whispered.

'Of course it isn't, but he sure thinks it is.' The two paused for a moment to look at the Potter-Weasley family gathered in the huge garden that looked over the sea. The picture was a scene of chaos, with people chasing children, and a large multitude of people speaking at once. The girls teased the scene for a moment, and then moved on, kicking stones off the cliff that lead to the waters below.

They passed kids their age, although they didn't even know some of them. Any boys who they had met before greeted Xevera immediately, usually knowing her, and Victoire couldn't help but feel a twang of jealousy at how easily Xevera talked to guys, although Victoire was one of Xevera's very few friends that was actually a girl. Xevera on the other hand couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy of Victoire's beauty; she saw the way guys looked at her, although Victoire was also part veela. They continued walking, secretly pondering about each other. When they found that they were almost at the end of the garden, Xevera seemed to finally lose it.

'Like seriously, where in fuck is James, this is getting ridiculous, the smartars- ' but she never finished the sentence as someone ran up and hugged her around the waist, causing her to scream in fright. She squirmed around in the boy's tight grip and turned around to see a dark haired, green-eyed boy. 'James Sirius Potter! Don't you dare do that ever again!' She yelled, hugging him but not taking time to hit him hard in the back of the head. 'Nice to see you too!' He laughed, rubbing the back of his head; his now watering eyes immediately landing on Victoire. 'Vic!'

Victoire laughed at the nickname and screamed, 'Oh my god no!' But it was too late, as she had been tackled by _two _boys now, the second which she knew to be Teddy. 'Hey guys,' she cried, wriggling her way out of the hug. They all turned to look at each other, and after a pause of heavy breathing, Xevera lit up, 'Teddy!' She screamed, and Teddy was jumped upon by a girl he had never met in his life. She wasn't particularly pretty with a pointed face and small, steely grey eyes, with strawberry blonde hair that fell down her back in braids. She was unbelievably skinny, almost like a twig, but she seemed just as pleasant all the same.

'Xevera?' James, Uncle George, Auntie Angelina, and Victoire had told him plenty about this girl. He had been excited to meet her, although she wasn't what he expected. 'Dude,' she smiled to the others, 'He knows my name!'

'How could I not know about the famous Xevera Zillia, all anyone does is talk about you.'

Even though she already had bright pink cheeks, he could see her face turn a little bit brighter. She kept her smile on, reminding herself to have a little chat with Victoire later. 'Hah, well welcome to the clan man!' Xevera found herself standing in the middle of the three children, and decided to seize the moment.

'I almost forgot to say hello to a very special guest!' Xevera whipped around on James and stalked up to him, making Victoire pray to god that she wouldn't have to witness rape at age 11. The girl already had the mouth of a sailor, and Victoire and Mia as well as everyone else had learned there was no stopping it.

'Hi Peppy, how are you?' Xevera smiled at James's nose, and Victoire and Teddy could notice a faint dot.

'So what do you guys wanna do?' James said through clenched teeth, trying to ignore Xevera.

'Oh don't be rude, let's say hello.'

'Football?'

'Look how big you've gotten!'

'Swimming?'

'Jeez you're like your own planet!'

'Quidditch?'

'You could give Aunt Muriel's ars a run for her money!'

'Get some lemonade?'

'Man you're so fat Peppy, people must mistake your arsehole for a black hole!'

At this point James was shaking and had turned bright red, while Teddy and Victoire were on the ground, trying to not die of laughter.

'Oh I know! Let's do my favorite thing and climb a tree! Oh, only you may have to watch Peppy, if you climb on the tree it might break from your weight!' And with that she was off running with her braids flying behind her, laughing loudly. Teddy and Victoire stayed hot on her tail as to make sure they didn't endure the wrath of Peppy and James. Xevera was fastest up the tree, with its multiple branches and large green leaves. It had been there for years, yet no one had paid attention to it until Xevera came. The first time she visited Shell Cottage she asked if they could go up the tree. Caught off guard, Fleur and Bill didn't see any reason as to why not, and that day Xevera had helped Victoire climb her first tree. James was fast and caught up to them, but Xevera raced up the tree before the boys could do so much as blink. They followed in suit, and soon were sitting on branches, high above the ground. 'Come on Vic!' Xevera yelled, only being distantly heard.

Victoire looked up at the large tree, and then down at her skirt, 'I can't!'

'Why?' The three children in the tree chorused.

'I'm not in the proper attire,' she said blushing, completely embarrassed. There was a slight pause in which you could only hear the wind rustle through the trees, and the waves crash against the shore from below. Then, all at the same time, Teddy, James, and Xevera started laughing uncontrollably.

Victoire's pale skin blushed bright red, 'It's true though!' Victoire tried yelling over their laughter.

'Victoire you're such a girl!' Xevera cried through tears of laughter.

'You are too, in case you haven't noticed!'

'I'm a girl, but I'm not pink and frilly!'

'Not everyone can be perfect!' Victoire yelled in mock, and suddenly Xevera had a solemn look on her face, as she looked down at Victoire, so solemn that it almost scared her. Everyone went quiet and looked up at Xevera, as she was on the highest branch of all of them.

'It's true,' Xevera said, barely audible, 'There aren't many of us left.' As the boys laughed, and Xevera tried to hide a smile, Victoire stomped of in a huff, ready to grab new clothes. After the three children collected themselves, James looked off at Victoire's figure, which was now a dot. 'I'll go and help her,' he cried, and with that he swung down the branches and jumped down, running after the blonde girl. Teddy looked up to see that Xevera had climbed higher and was swinging from a branch.

'Come on up! Unless you're not in the proper attire either,' She laughed, and he joined her shouting, 'No, here I come!' He scrambled up the tree after her, wondering all the way up how the hell she climbed so quickly. Xevera studied him as he came up the tree, taking him in as she did with every new person; he was skinny with brown hair that stuck up a little. He had a sweet face with swooping cheekbones, and dark brown eyes. She smiled as his nose scrunched up in frustration. He was at the branch below her, huffing and puffing, when she giggled, 'Here, I'll come down.' She dropped from the branch she was swinging on, obviously planning on landing below, but missed. Teddy was about to yell out, when he noticed a small hand right by him and heard Xevera mutter, 'Well that's gonna leave a mark.'

'You want help?'

'No I'd like to enjoy the view as I hang on for dear life. Yes I want help!' She pulled herself up with one hand, revealing to him the other, which he proceeded to pull on. She swung her legs over and sat next to him, branding a huge scrape on her right knee.

'Merlin, are you okay?'

'Yeah,' she laughed, 'I find myself doing that a lot. My parents sure don't appreciate it, but after about seven broken arms and legs I'm sure they've gotten used to it,' she grinned at him. He quickly noticed little silver and blue squares on her teeth. Not realizing what he was doing, he reached out and touched them. Xevera quirked an eyebrow and then gave a look as if to say, "Whatever." They were cold little pieces of metal with silver wiring between them, and had a sort of lumpy feeling. It was like, they were smooth, and then had a bump, then caved, and they even had these little blue bands surrounding the center. The wiring was perfectly smooth, keeping all the little squares in formation. Xevera couldn't help but laugh inside her head at his fascination, but she decided to cut him some slack, knowing that he had probably never seen these in his life.

After a moment of realizing what he was doing, he quickly removed his hand, embarrassed, and tried to concentrate on not letting her see this. 'What are those,' Teddy asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

'They're called braces, they're a muggle contraption they use to straighten your teeth, and they hurt like hell, but I'm getting mine off next week!' He gave her a confused look, to which she replied, 'They glue them to your teeth, so they're gonna have to get them off.'

'Ugh, that's so-'

'Weird I know. I get that a lot from you pureblood folk.'

'I'm not a pureblood, my mum was a witch and my dad was a werewolf.' He automatically wished he hadn't said this and looked down at his feet, which dangled above the earth. Xevera's face fell into immediate guilt.

'Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it that way! I didn't know-'

'It's okay,' Teddy smiled, 'I get it.' He continued to look down, and she stared at him in sympathy, and then looked at the setting sun. He felt so embarrassed it was unbelievable, that his hair even turned bright red, and he could hear her gasp. 'Hey whoa, that is NOT normal man! But it's so cool!' She stared at him with her jaw dropped, and he grinned at her, 'I'm a Metamorphmagus. Got it from my mum.'

'No way, I-' She stopped abruptly, looking like she was having an argument in her mind. He was going to question this but she blurted out, 'Can you make it rainbow? I don't have a favorite color.' Used to getting these requests, he did this in an instance, making her whisper, 'Wicked Teddy!' They laughed for a few minutes as he changed appearances for their entertainment, when Victoire finally came back looking awfully disappointed with an annoyed looking James. 'Little miss picky here couldn't decide what to wear and now we have to come down for dinner.'

'Typical,' Xevera laughed rolling her eyes. James shoved Victoire back around and they started slowly walking back to the house.

Xevera was just about to climb down the branch when she looked up at Teddy, studying his face for a minute, and then broke out into a toothy grin. 'We're gonna be best friends Teddy Remus Lupin, you just don't know it yet.'

* * *

**So you all need Teddy's metamorphmagus hair key, so here it is! Keep it!**

**Teddy hair colors:**

**Brown – Technical usual hair color**

**Red – angry**

**Pink – Happiness (love)**

**Orange – Annoyed**

**Deep blue – Sad**

**Green – Scared**

**Yellow – Embarrassed**

**Other – For fun (happy)**

**~ Paule**


	2. For No One

'Grandma! Geroff me!' A very annoyed Teddy Lupin continued to whine, trying to get his grandmother to stop wiping his nose. 'Oh but if you would just stay still,' Andromeda said, licking her handkerchief and continuing to wipe, while using her other hand to keep a grip on his shoulder.

'There,' she sighed after a minute, letting Teddy feel his now very pink, tender nose, content with her work as his hair turned a very light orange. 'I'll go and make sure everything is in my trunk before we go,' Teddy said, already half way up the stairs. 'Alright but hurry, we only have a few minutes to spare,' Andromeda called up the banister. 'It's already quarter after ten.'

Teddy rolled his eyes as he distantly heard his grandma grouch a bit more, turning the glass, octagonal doorknob to his room. He entered the room, making a beeline for the bed, placing his feet on the large brown trunk that sat at the end of it. He and his grandmother both knew very well that he hadn't come up here for further packing.

So much change had happened in the past couple of weeks, it was a bit hard to conceive it all. The only people he had ever known were Victoire, James, and all the rest of the Weasley-Potter family. He had met Mia a bit earlier that year, when he was supposed to meet Xevera as well, but then she had some trouble with her muggle parents, and then after meeting her just before school, and not long before that… Well if that's how easy it would be to make friends, life was just a little too surreal at the moment. But he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with questions. What if everyone hated him? What if the teachers hated him? What if he failed everything? What if he became a social outcast for his being… well, different? Or worse, what if he and James weren't in the same house?

He knew Victoire and Xevera were having the same worry, although concerning themselves. Initially they had been worried that Xevera might end up in Slytherin, seeing as Hogwarts had changed quite a bit since the Golden Trio's heyday. While you still got slime balls, Slytherin house was more a house of badasses rather than a house of evil. During regular feasts houses would intermingle, and if invited by someone of that house, you could go into other common rooms. This was mostly due to, not too surprisingly, Hermione, who after the war had made it her duty to make the wizarding world a better place. Teddy, James, and Xevera had had to speak for almost an hour with Victoire, trying to convince her that she would be fine, and end up in Gryffindor with Xevera and Mia.

It was at that moment in deep thought, that Teddy noticed the corner of a photo sticking out of the pillow next to him. Fingertips were just peeking out, supposedly waving back and forth. He carefully tugged out the photo, and the second he got a good look of the photo; he slapped a hand to his forehead. He sat up and scooted down the bed, unlatching his trunk, thankful at that moment that his grandmother had been the one to pack. He heard a faint, '10:45,' and with one last look at his smiling mother and father, he shoved the photo in with the other contents of his trunk, just as his grandmother came bustling through the door.

'10:46,' She practically screamed, pointing her wand at Teddy's trunk, making it disappear.

'Oi!'

'Don't worry, I zapped it to George, he's at the station. Xevera turned up at Angelina and George's doorstep this morning.' Her face showed the same confusion that he was sure his face was showing too. Andromeda had indeed known Xevera longer than Teddy, but it didn't take a genius to know that Angelina and George loved Xevera as their own. Regardless, it was strange, but Teddy decided he'd ask Xevera about what happened later.

* * *

Little did he know that Andromeda knew fully well what had happened, and that he would never find out what had happened at Amber Cottage earlier that morning.

'Mum, are you sure you can't take me to King's Cross Station?'

'For the last time, yes, I'm sure. Hitch a ride with one of your freak friends.' It was six in the morning, and Xevera Zillia had been trying to convince her mother for the past half-hour to take her to King's Cross Station, in order for her to get to Hogwarts.

'They're not freaks, if they're freaks, then I'm a freak. That's it! You think I'm a freak!' Miss Schwartz sighed dramatically, but still didn't turn over in bed, not wanting to give her daughter the time of day. 'Yes Xevera, you've caught me, I think you're a freak.'

Catching onto the heavy sarcasm, Xevera said quietly, 'Next time, don't insult my friends, especially when the insult can be easily turned on me, and you know it.'

'I can have my own opinion.'

'Then don't share,' Xevera spat, frowning in disgust at the lump under the blanket in front of her. 'I don't want to have to always be punished for doing the right thing; defending my friends from your pathetic insults.'

'I should tell your father about this.'

'And what's he going to do, find me in the middle of the night with his buddy Melvin the machete?' She let out a deep sigh; 'I think I'm going to stay at dad's for Christmas.'

'Oh, okay.' Miss Schwartz said this in a way that was supposed to sound hurt, even if she wasn't, and did this to make Xevera feel bad. She would always say that it was okay, and it was fine, when Xevera would start to ask if it was alright, feeling guilty.

'Um I should get going.' Pause. 'Wanna say goodbye?' She heard a small grunt, as her mother heaved herself over to finally face her, spreading her arms out, eyes still half closed. 'Come here.' They held onto each other for a moment, as Xevera whispered, 'I'll miss you.'

'I'll miss you too.' She kissed her daughter, looking down at her. 'You know I love you right?'

'Yeah I love you too,' Xevera smiled, secretly wondering to herself just how far that truly extended.

Her mother went right back to sleep, almost as if nothing had happened in the past few minutes, so Xevera headed right back out of the room, zipping up her purple hoodie. She headed down the stairs and looked out the slightly cracked window. Great. It was raining. 'Just my luck,' she smirked. She looked at the ten pounds in her hand, and grabbed onto her trunk, wondering how the hell she would do what she was just about to do. If she wanted any hope of ever getting to Hogwarts, there was only one place she could go, and one place only.

She would take a bus to a nearby bakery, which wasn't that close, considering it was 20 miles away. Last week James had come over, showing her that there was this place called a telefloo, a tiny building with multiple floo places. (It was obviously hidden to the muggle eye.) From there she would floo to another telefloo, near Amber Cottage, George and Angelina's home. It was out there, but it had to work, all possibilities of going the Hogwarts were riding on this plan.

With a groan at all thoughts of failure, Xevera wrenched open the front door, and started out, lugging her trunk behind. She not once looked back, keeping her mind in its usual, comical, teasing state.

Like most English houses in the countryside, the Schwartz residence was in the middle of nowhere, while the Zillia residence, Xevera's father's house, resided in the center of London. Being in the middle of nowhere made public transportation decide, for a sensual reason, that they needed to have a bus stop every mile or so.

In the short distance it took to get to the bus stop, Xevera had gotten completely drenched. When she got under the small bus stop covering, she smiled to herself, 'Darn! Should've worn my swimsuit today! Oh well, next time.' But the bus arrived soon enough, although the arrival amused Xevera beyond compare.

The bus driver was a short, pudgy man named Darwin. Darwin was a simple man, with brown combed over hair, and in his late thirties. He was a quiet man, just wanting to do his job, driving across England everyday. He had a fairly easy job, got paid fairly well for doing something he actually enjoyed, driving, and Darwin took great pride in his job.

Almost nobody used the bus, so when Darwin was speeding along, and saw an 11-year-old girl actually waiting for the bus, Darwin tried to stop suddenly; he was lucky that he hadn't completely smashed the bus. It had skidded, leaning dangerously, ending its voyage by sitting right across the road, blocking all inexistent traffic.

As the bus door slowly creaked open, Xevera stepped onto the first step with her trunk and cracked a smile. 'Thank you for not killing me sir, it really made my day! Oh, and,' she dropped some money in front of him. 'I'm heading over to central Corrykinloch, I'm sure you know where that is.'

And with that she heaved up her trunk, and went to the back of the bus, leaving Darwin dumbstruck, trying to stifle her laughter all the way to her seat. It didn't take long to figure out why Darwin had been so staggered to see her, nobody came on the bus, and at the rare stop sign, Darwin would turn around and goggle at her, as if not sure whether or not she was real. When this would happen, Xevera would either give a broad grin, wave, give a thumbs up, or point her hands at him like guns, winking with that "you got it" kind of look.

It was a half hour drive, with a lot of green fields, and lots of rain. They passed two muggle farms, where cows would be moseying through the field and, much to Xevera's wonder, didn't seem to take any care whatsoever to the rain beating down upon them. To occupy herself the rest of the time, she would look at the large window and have a "race" between two raindrops, seeing who would reach the bottom first. After about 20 minutes of driving, cars started appearing. They shortly entered a tiny little town, which had to have 15 stores at most, with approximately four people loitering around.

Darwin pulled the bus to a halt, letting Xevera slowly and steadily make her way down the bus, her trunk trailing along. She smiled at Darwin brightly, 'Again, really appreciate that you decided to spare my life!' She waved cheerfully. Not remembering the last time he had actually had to talk a passenger, Darwin just gave her a strange look, grunted, and closed the doors.

Xevera watched as the bus roared to life and went on its way, gazing at it until it was a tiny dot off in the distance. She turned her attention to the town around, which she now noted was extremely run down, as she scanned the town, looking for the tiny telefloo bakery, until she spotted it.

It had closed down ages ago as far as she could tell. It still had a, (now dull and faded,) pink awning with letters that were peeling. She could only make out an "a", and then the "kery" in bakery. She had remembered from last time as James had shown her, that from here, and to all muggles, it looked like a boarded up, out of business bakery. But if you were a wizard, and got closer, you could see lots of large fireplaces for flooing. Excited with a tight grip on her trunk, Xevera leapt forward, but didn't get very far, as her trunk was probably twice her weight. With determination and an even _tighter_ grip, she began slowly tugging the trunk down the block, wheezing, 'Just got to floo, and then I'll have a few more miles of this.'

Thankful to have made it to the telefloo without passing onto the next life, she slipped inside, finding herself gaping.

It was all dark marble with large, gold, finely detailed crested fireplaces. There was a man or woman guarding each fireplace, each wearing a light blue uniform and cap, the shoulders and caps entwined with thin, golden braids. The place was huge, having to hold at least 30 fireplaces and 30 expressionless men and women to go along with them. She cautiously made her way inside, her footsteps echoing on the floor, and her trunk following nosily behind her.

A few of the men and women's eyes flicked towards her, but quickly went back to staring into the space in front of them. Xevera stepped in front of the eighth fireplace on her left, turning towards a small, round-shouldered man. She was about to step into the ornate fireplace, when he stuck out a stubby hand to stop her.

'Where do you think you're going,' he said in a surprisingly gruff voice. 'Norwich please.'

'I see,' he said thoughtfully, pausing for a moment. 'That'll be…. One Galleon.'

'Excuse me?'

'One Galleon.'

'W-w-what?' Xevera spluttered, the smile instantly disappearing from her face. 'It costs money?' James hadn't told her this! Although mind you, he probably didn't think she'd be flooing anywhere either. She was only 11; I mean for god's sake, she hadn't even gone to Hogwarts yet. To her credit she had flooed once before, from Amber Cottage to Shell Cottage, but it was free, and she hadn't been alone.

'Course you gotta pay. This isn't some homeless transport,' he chortled. Xevera's heart dropped into her throat. There was no way she was getting to Hogwarts, or home for that matter. 'Of course you've got to pay,' she muttered to herself. How could she have so stupid, she wondered, letting her mind wander back to the 50 galleons in her Gringott's account. She didn't really move for a few minutes, still trying to get over the initial shock, letting the floo man stand there awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. The man let out a defeated sigh, tired of having to see Xevera staring out into space, totally unaware of her surroundings.

'Where you going?' He asked in a bored tone. 'To a friend's house. I'm hoping they can get me to King's Cross.'

'And your parents-'

'Not here,' she interrupted uncomfortably. The man shifted a bit more, disgruntled, looking her up and down. 'How old are you?'

'11,' she sighed nervously, scared he'd deny her because of her being not only underage, but of not having even learned any magic yet. 'Look,' he whispered, reaching into his pocket, 'Not technically supposed to do this.'

He pulled out a shiny, gold galleon, pulled out her arm, and pressed the coin into her hand discretely. 'Ah, I see you have the money to pay,' he said, loudly, taking the galleon right back, He stared at her for a moment, giving her an awkward smile. He clearly didn't form his face into something even mutually close to this very often. He dropped a bit of the light green floo powder into her hand, quickly turning away to struggle with the task of pushing her heavy trunk into the fireplace.

'Bloody hell!' Xevera cried, still shell-shocked. 'Thank you Mister floo man!' She cried out once more, jumping into the fireplace. 'Whatever,' he mumbled, granting Xevera to give him one last thankful look, before gripping her trunk and throwing down her floo powder, yelling out, 'Norwich!'

Suddenly, the telefloo and the small floo man spun away from view, letting her spin quickly, green flames engulfing her, before she stumbled out of another fireplace, a green glare bugging her eyes. This telefloo looked exactly the same as the last one, except now she found herself face to face with a cheerful lady.

'Hi sweetie,' she smiled at Xevera as she stepped out of the fireplace. 'Looking for your parents?' She lugged Xevera's trunk out of the fireplace. She was a young, pretty girl that was fairly tall, with long, curly blonde hair that was pulled back into a high ponytail. 'Heh…. Funny story…. Uh, no.'

'Oh,' the girl said, clearly off guard. 'But,' Xevera quickly recovered, 'My… er… Uncle should be somewhere around.' She tucked her hands behind her back, plastered on a smile, and enlarged her eyes, hoping the "cute" look would work in her favor. 'Oh, okay,' she bounced back, now eyeing Xevera's trunk. 'That looks awfully heavy for one little girl,' the lady pouted, as Xevera tried to not react to the "little girl" comment. 'Here,' she flicked her wand, a silver trolley appearing, as the girl flicked her wand once more, levitating Xevera's trunk onto the cart. 'Whether your uncle is a block away, or a mile away, when this cart loses use for an hour, it will appear back here.'

'Okay then, thank you.'

Xevera was just dazing over her unbelievable luck, waiting for there to be a catch, and as she pushed the trolley out of the telefloo, she found that catch. It was absolutely pouring here as well, if not worse. 'No,' Xevera groused, 'Definitely worse.'

After an hour of rambling on her way, Xevera was beyond exhausted. Even on a trolley, the trunk was damned heavy, and the fact that she was as wet as if she'd jumped into the ocean didn't help. She looked down at her watch, silently thanking herself that it was waterproof, to see that it was still early, 7:32. Positive that she was halfway there, at this rate she would be there around eight o' clock.

She had had a good hour of walking, and for such a tiny girl in the current circumstances, Xevera walked bloody fast. She noticed, (in all that she could, since generally when you're concentrated on a task you don't notice much,) that the grass had slowly grown taller.

'Sh-sh-shit!' Her teeth were chattering, and at this point, that was the last thing she needed. But after another half-hour of chattering, wheezing, and aching, she finally was standing in front of her destination, as gallons of water continued to pour down on her.

It was a fairly large house, made out of old, rustic bricks. It had a large chimney, and the house had to contain at least four levels, even from this far down its pebbling path, it was a very vintage looking house.

'Amber Cottage,' Xevera smiled to herself.

* * *

It was just about eight o' clock in the morning, and Angelina Weasley was downstairs, brewing herself a cup of coffee. She rubbed her tired eyes, thinking to herself about how ridiculous it was that she was up this early. She reminded herself that she was lucky that she didn't get up even earlier. Fred and herself, with George's self-proclaimed "help", had made sure everything was in place so that they could just get out the door, unlike the Potters. She smiled to herself, as she knew, as everyone else knew really, that the Potters always did everything last minute.

On top of it all, she didn't have to work for the next month. Angelina played as a chaser on the Hollyhead Harpies, (along with Ginny,) and practice didn't start until then.

Angelina knew that George would sleep all day if she didn't wake him up, so she called out, 'George!' Nothing. 'George!' After a few seconds, she heard a loud groan. 'Wha-at?' He called out, much like a very annoyed child. 'You have to be up in the next hour,' she called, and was greeted by silence.

No doubt George was now trying to convince himself that he could fall back asleep now. She knew very well though that he'd be getting ready in the next 15 minutes, defeated.

Rain pounded down on the house, as Angelina watched the storm rage on outside. She was sitting at the large mahogany kitchen table, when she heard a faint tapping. Angelina chose to ignore this, as it could just be part of the storm, so she sipped her coffee, instantly regretting it as the hot muggle liquid burnt her tongue.

Arthur had given them a coffee maker last Christmas along with bags of coffee beans, as he was obsessed with anything muggle. So Angelina and Fred would use it once in a while, as to not upset him, even though they found it to be completely disgusting. Letting the cup of coffee now simply warm her hands, there were more urgent taps.

'Who in Merlin's name would be knocking on our front door at this time of day?' Angelina muttered to herself, making her way towards the tapping, which she found to be the front door. She peeped open the door and gasped, 'George! Get down here!'

Standing outside, shivering violently was Xevera Zillia. Her clothes were matted to her body, wet, as well as the hair that was just visible from under her hood, and sitting next to her was the large trunk that Victoire and her family had given to her for her birthday.

From right behind her, George blasted down the stairs in a dark green t-shirt and jeans, wand in hand. Just a minute ago, George Weasley had heard what he thought was his wife's cries for help. He had run down the stairs after having just changed into some clothes, and had whipped his wand out, expecting an intruder. Instead he had found Angelina with the door open.

She widened her eyes when she saw him, and bopped her head towards the door several times. George was utterly confused, not knowing what the hell she was saying, although he was sure that if he were a woman, he'd know exactly what she was trying to communicate. Angelina rolled her eyes at George's clueless face, poking her head back out the door, now joined by a shocked George.

'H-h-hi Angel-l-l-lina a-and G-G-George,' Xevera chattered. 'Merlin's beard Xevera! What're you doing here?' Angelina exclaimed, giving her an incredulous look. 'It's a b-bit of a l-l-long st-story.'

'Well I'd like to hear that story,' said Angelina in a rather bossy tone, placing a hand on her waist. 'For God's sake Angelina, let the poor kid in. She's only been eleven for a week.' George burst out, sounding a lot more annoyed than he had intended.

Feeling immediately guilty, Angelina noticed that Xevera was now gripping the trunk, just so she could stand. 'Oh my god I'm so sorry, Xevera please, come in, quickly now.' But Xevera merely trembled, as George and Angelina looked at her expectantly, watching the rain gush down on her.

She laughed in a slightly delirious manner, 'F-funny you sh-sh-sh-should m-mention that, you see…. I can't f-f-feel my l-legs,' she ended lamely, smiling weakly. 'Oh jeez, George-,'

'On it,' he was already out the door, picking her up. Angelina followed suit, dragging the trunk into the house, and in the ten seconds she and George had spent in the rain, they were soaked. Angelina immediately ran to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, running back into the hall to rap the towel around Xevera the best she could. George currently had her legs wrapped around his waist, holding on, with her head draped over his right shoulder, as her tiny form still shook vigorously.

For her age, she was small, maybe 4'9, and it wasn't hard to mistake her as someone's younger sister, except for that fact that she used constant profanity.

'I'm cold,' she sobbed, burying her face into George's shoulder, George felt his shoulder suddenly become warm, making him pray that what he was feeling were tears. Angelina and George gave each other helpless faces, so Angelina went around to wipe Xevera's face off with her thumbs. 'Look, honey? We're going to stick you in our bed,

('Wait, our bed? Excuse me?')

And we'll all lie down while you tell us what happened.' Angelina said sweetly, remembering the last time she talked like this to Fred, when he had lost his wand, except this time she didn't feel the ulterior motive to kill. George carried her upstairs, with Angelina stroking her hair all the way. When they entered the bedroom, tears continued to streak down Xevera's face, but she couldn't help but let her eyes widen.

It was a large bedroom with tall windows that were accompanied by silky, dark blue drapes. They had a large bed that hand an intricately carved wooden frame, with gold accents. It had big, thick white blankets that had embossments of black trees and branches. Photos hung all over the walls, showing friends, and family, and Xevera was surprised to spot quite a few of herself. There was a grand, wooden fireplace, and the walls were painted a dark blue, just like the curtains.

What caught Xevera's eye was hanging over the fireplace, a large photo of Angelina, George, and their son, Fred. Of course, all the photos were moving, so the family smiled and waved at everyone, once in a while squabbling with each other. Everything just somehow worked with each other.

Upon entering the room, Angelina pointed her wand at the fireplace and lit a fire, while George laid Xevera under the covers in the middle, leaving George and Angelina to lie on either side. They all lay for a few minutes, letting Xevera warm up, while in the mean time Angelina kept trying to communicate to George with her eyes. George kept trying to silently communicate that he was of the male race, so he couldn't understand what the hell she was trying to tell him.

Finally Xevera mumbled, 'My parents wouldn't take me to Hogwarts, so they said if I wanted to get there, I'd have to do it myself.'

'How did you get here,' George tried to sooth, letting Angelina stroke her hair. 'Well I live about 20 miles outside Central Corrykinloch, so I walked a little under a mile to the nearest bus stop.' George shot Angelina a confused look, before she mouthed, 'muggle transport.' George nodded, but in his head he thought, oh now you convey in a way I can comprehend.

'I took the bus to the telefloo, and flooed over to Norwich.' She paused, deciding in that moment not to mention the floo man. 'Then I walked here.'

'D-d-did your parents know that you'd have to do all that?' Angelina asked, already alarmed, and not sure she really wanted to know the answer. But Xevera nodded, causing Angelina and George to turn their faces to each other, Angelina's one of horror and George's completely livid. 'Um, can I get a ride to King's Cross?'

'Oh of course!' Angelina said quickly, 'But-' and then, something very weird happened, that caused her to look up at George in shock, and Xevera to give her a confused look.

George looked down at Xevera, and it took all that he had in him not to gasp. Xevera's face seemed to be practically melting away. Her skin went from lightly tanned, to pale, and her cheekbones rose a bit more, going at an ever so slight angle. Her almond hazel eyes enlarged to a blue that was streaked with green and brown, and her usually thin lips became pinker and fuller. Her face became less pointed and sunken, to soft and full. Her nose became smaller and less turned up, and a tiny scar formed by her left eye. Her hair slowly shrunk back into her head, making it shoulder length, straight and brown, instead of waist length, wavy and strawberry blonde. She had an overall, prettier and cuter appearance. It wasn't hard to figure out, even if it was shocking. A dramatic psychological event, and a changing of a appearance...

'Xevera,' Angelina whispered, completely blown away. 'Are you a… Metamorphmagus?'

'Maybe?' she smiled sheepishly. 'And you didn't tell us, why?'

'Well I thought maybe all wizards could morph, but then my cousin convinced me otherwise, telling me it was a bad thing.'

'Hang on, is that the dumbass from-' George started, but recoiled at the look his wife was giving him. 'Well sweetie, it certainly isn't very common, but it's not a bad thing at all.'

'Yeah, totally! I mean now think about what you and Fred can do at Hogwarts! With all of our wit and maniacal ways, my products, your morphing, the trouble caused will-' but once again George was stopped by another look he was receiving from Angelina. 'What I'd like to know,' Angelina started, keeping her eyes on George, 'Is why you've been going around with a different appearance.' Xevera took a deep breath, looking up at Angelina and George, ' I never really looked like either of my parents, and I've always been so certain they were disappointed.' Tears began quickly racing down her face, but she didn't make a sound. It was so quiet from shock and sorrow that you could hear a cooked pea drop on carpet. And that's saying something.

'We think you're even more beautiful just the way you are,' George whispered sadly. It was odd seeing the usually happy girl so upset, she had seemed to never be sad once in her entire life. 'And,' Angelina added, trying to sound cheerful, 'We want you to go to school, exactly like this, not with a changed appearance, unless of course your hair changes color due to emotion, as all metamorphmagi do. I understand you were probably planning to keep your disguise, but I think it's somehow a good thing.'

Xevera nodded, but kept her head concealed in the blankets, as Angelina wrapped her up in a tight hug, allowing George to do the same thing from the other side. After a good five minutes of staying like this, they heard a very muffled Xevera say, 'I love you guys, and I really appreciate all of this. But er, how do I put this? I can't breathe.'

'Silly, that's the point,' George smirked, his voice heavily laced with sarcasm. The three broke into giggles as George and Angelina gently released, with slightly wet fronts. But as soon as they had rolled off the bed, Xevera was snoozing off, clearly utterly exhausted.

Keeping his voice level and quiet, George whispered, 'I swear, the minute I get my hands on those parents-'

'Oh shush George.' The couple had now joined up in the walk in closet, as Angelina laid a hand on her husband's shoulder, and another on his chest. 'Come on Angelina, at this rate she could be taking drugs by her third year, and her parents wouldn't really give a shit, only caring about what it does for their image.' George shout-whispered, giving Angelina an opportunity to raise an eyebrow at him.

'I think you're over reacting with the whole "drug" thing and not giving Xevera the benefit of the doubt. She's a smart girl and keeps her wits about her. And you smoked all of Hogwarts.'

'And I wonder where I got them?'

'Well they don't affect wizards! My point exactly!' George still looked at Xevera through the crack in the closet door, before Angelina caressed the side of his face, turning it back towards her. His face softened at her touch, he never got this heated, she thought as grinned up at him.

He really didn't look a day older than when they had gotten married now that she thought about it, which had been right after the war, Fred's birth not coming long afterwards. She remembered the family being disappointed because they hadn't had a big, frou-frou wedding. She also remembered that Fred and George at Bill and Fleur's wedding before the war had vowed that they wouldn't have a big wedding, in order to avoid having to wear uncanny clothing and everyone having to flit around. He just had become leaner and faintly more chiseled as the years had passed. Thankfully, none of the five Weasley boys, except Percy, had seemed to catch onto their father's gene of balding, as George still had a thick head of red hair. On top of it all, his ear had come back, all because of some genius at St. Mungo's. She couldn't help but stare at it for a few seconds everyday, beyond grateful.

'It'll be okay, we love her and that's all that matters.' He nodded slowly, staring at her with a smile. She smirked, sizing up his dazed expression. 'What?'

'Just think you're beautiful is all.' He threw his hands up in the air dramatically, 'You can take me away now, lock me up in Azkaban!' She gave him a crooked smile, not indulging him in a true reaction, 'You're so weird.'

She was just changing her shirt, pulling down a new one when she heard from behind, 'Been working a lot lately, haven't exactly had much time for us.' She paused for a moment, reconsidering his words. Damn straight he hadn't. She pretended not to be listening, undressing and redressing, knowing it would absolutely torture him. 'I well-' he caught his breath as she "remembered" that she needed new underclothes, stripping down entirely. Bingo, he had given her just the reaction she was looking for.

It was true, George had been so wallowed up in his work lately, that they had had no alone time, to the point that Angelina couldn't even remember the last time he had said "I love you." Mind you, that had always been a rarity anyways.

She had now dressed, and whipped around at him, hoping to give him a shock, but Angelina received the surprise. His face was just inches from hers, and he slipped a hand around her waist, pulling. She tried to hide the fact that she felt like a teenager, and felt she was doing well, keeping up a frustrated face. But George had known Angelina only too long, and was able to see right through it.

'Haven't said it in a while but,' he looked into her eyes, making his heart skip a beat, 'I love you,' and with that he pulled her in closer, kissing her softly on the lips, savoring every moment, as Angelina's arms snaked their way around his neck. Things were just heating up a bit more as George worked his hands down, when she pushed away, laughing and rolling her eyes. 'You are unbelievable.'

'Sorry no, I'm George,' he beamed, earning him a look as they snuck out of the room, letting Xevera sleep on. 'Nine o' clock. Think we should wake Fred and tell him?'

'Tell me what?' George and Angelina spun around to face their son Fred, who was already dressed, hands in his jean pockets. 'Er, I think I'm going to play, er, some cricket. Man cricket. For ages 20 and up, so don't follow,' George rushed, dashing down the stairs, undoubtedly to what he referred to as his "man cave." Great, thought Angelina, leave me to do the talking, very funny George, absolutely hilarious.

'Hey there sweetheart,' She said quietly, taking him by the shoulders, beginning to steer him away from the room. 'Mum wha-'

'Good nights sleep?'

'Would you-'

'Yes I agree.'

'Excuse me-'

'Mmm.'

'Listen-'

'Oh yes, a nice hot breakfast.'

'But-'

'Shh.'

'Mum-'

'Cereal?'

'Uh-'

'Oh you're right that's cold.'

'Well-'

'Porridge?'

'Hey-'

'Pancakes?'

'You know-'

'Waffles?'

'Mum!' They were now in the downstairs kitchen, Fred having just been pushed into a chair. He looked just like George, except his red hair was a bit deeper, and he had clear, tanner skin, with his clear blue eyes, just like his dad's. He was an extremely good-looking boy.

She could feel herself weaken a bit at the knees under his glare, and gave in, 'Xevera's upstairs.' Instantly Fred's eyes lit up, 'Well why didn't you say so?' Fred exclaimed, jumping up only to be pushed back down by Angelina. 'She's asleep, and not in a joking condition.' Angelina went on to explain what Xevera had told them, and the whole thing with the Metamorphmagus situation.

He gasped in all the right places, sometimes whispering things like, "bloody hell," or, "bollucks," and even at one point, "Wicked! Maybe at school we can-" but on that one time he had stopped himself when he was granted a particularly stern look from him mum. When Angelina had finally stopped, taking in a deep breath, there was an awkward pause. The two just stared at each other, each waiting for the other to talk first, until Fred finally murmured, 'Bloody hell, that's brutal. Mind you, the morphing will come in handy, with her small size. Maybe I should follow dad's advice and-' He stopped himself quickly as he was saved yet another death glare from his mother, as his father came into the room who froze and gave a small wave when he saw his wife boring two holes into him.

'You're giving them advice on causing trouble?' Angelina fumed. George rubbed the back of his neck, standing up to his full, tall height. He stayed right where he was, not daring to go near his wife. 'Well you don't want them to turn into pompous prats like Percy. Do you?'

'No but that doesn't mean they have to go and blow up the school!'

'Oh come on Angie,' Angelina couldn't help but flinch at the pet name that he had given her at Hogwarts in their seventh year when they had- never mind. 'Do you honestly think that I can send my child to Hogwarts and not expect him to cause as much trouble as me?'

'Or worse,' Fred piped in, earning him a resentful look from his mother. 'Filch must hate you, with the amount of detentions you and your friends have gotten. And I don't want the same for Xevera.'

'Oh please, with Xevera there we're bound to get _twice_ the amount of detentions.' Angelina looked directly at Fred as if to say, "Excuse me?" Giving George an opportunity to do a small fist pump. 'Filch takes it all in good fun,' Fred defended. 'Oh yeah, I'm sure the three of you will all be the best of pals by the end of the school year,' replied Angelina, rolling her eyes dramatically. 'Isn't there any shame for either of you?' But neither of the two replied, only looking down, pretending to be guilty, and not doing a very good job of it as they kept sneaking glances at each other to smirk.

Angelina gave up, arms crossed, hip popped, glaring at George, she said, 'Upstairs, wake up Xevera and say hello.' Making it very clear by her tone that this was directed to Fred, even though she not once took her eyes off George. This would be a very long day.

* * *

It was 10:45, and platform nine and three quarters was already packed with first years shedding many tears, students getting their trunks on the train, saying hello to their friends, and saying last farewells to their families while checking to see with their mums that they had everything. Xevera had already gotten her trunk on the train with help from Fred, and was searching through the crowd, desperately for two particular faces, and one had just been spotted.

Mia Niss was just placing her trunk on the train, her hazel eyes clearly frustrated, with her golden-brown hair heeding to this fashion. Xevera quickly saw Mr. and Mrs. Niss, but it was extremely hard not to. The muggle parents stuck out like sore thumbs, looking extremely uncomfortable as they watched their daughter. She came back to them soon enough, exchanging hugs and kisses, letting them then shuffle back through the portal, clearly disturbed by the lack of normality. Xevera assumed by the short departure that the family had done the goodbyes the night before. Mia scurried back into the crowd, her eyes searching, clearly looking for a familiar face.

As soon as Mia's eyes land on Xevera, they widened to the point where Xevera was worried they'd engulf her entire face. The girls had gone to the same muggle school, making the possibilities of them both being witches as slim as Twiggy. Them going to the same school also made Mia Xevera's only friend that knew the secret that knew what she really looked like.

'XEVERA!' Mia screamed, running towards her, 'You're alive!' She jumped on top of Xevera, sending them both towards the ground. 'That might not be true much longer,' Xevera groaned, shoving her friend off of her with as much love as possible while sending a disgruntled look, making up for the shove by hugging her properly once they had gotten up. 'Dude, you're-you're-'

'Normal looking I know, you don't look too shabby yourself.' Mia continued looking her up and down, ignoring the snide, but joking, comment. 'Does anyone else know what-'

'No except you because you're specialful.' Mia smiled, 'Is that even a real word?'

'It is now,' Xevera beamed. 'It's quarter to, find the others and get a compartment. I'll find Victoire.'

'Others?' Mia raised an eyebrow, contemplating what the hell that was supposed to mean. 'Just find a compartment with a couple lonely blokes, it'll be fine!' Xevera called, already heading back into the crowd.

She couldn't wait to see how Victoire would react, but she wouldn't have to wait long, as she now the tall girl in the crowd, saying goodbye to her frazzled parents, and a very unhappy Dominique.

Xevera skipped over catching the eyes of Victoire's parents. Fred and Angelina had told the whole incident to the entire Weasley-Potter family, but had only told the adults, deciding Xevera could tell the children when she wanted to. So when Bill and Fleur saw her, they tried to keep their faces neutral.

It was true that they didn't know Xevera's actual appearance, but it was easy enough to figure out. No one else in their bloody right mind skipped that enthusiastically at this time of day.

Once Xevera had placed herself behind Victoire, she pushed a chunk of the slivery blonde hair into her face. The reaction was immediate, Victoire spun around, her narrowed eyes spotting Xevera and looking her up and down, until her face plastered on an all too fake, obnoxious smile. 'Excuse me, but may I ask what you think you're doing?' She kept her hands behind her back, most likely in fists, and kept a nasty grin on her face. When Xevera talked, it was hard not to laugh, 'Come on Vic, that's no way to talk to you best friend.' Victoire's face soon melted into annoyed confusion. 'I-'

'Was just going to go and say hello to Peppy? I say that's a splendid idea!' Xevera grinned at her, as realization dawned on her face.

'Oh my god, no way! You-you-you have a face!' Victoire spluttered, fanning her hands out and waving them in front of her own face.'

'Yeah,' began Xevera, an amused look on her now apparent to Victoire face, 'People tend to have those.' Victoire continued to splutter and stutter, making dramatic hand gestures, causing herself look like she was having a small seizure. 'I'll leave her to you,' Xevera mouthed to Bill, turning on her heel, intending to get on the train.

But as we all know, things never seem to go as planned, as someone grabbed her arm, giving it a good yank before she could even plant herself a nice yard away from the train. She looked up to see Fred to be the source of the yank, and Angelina and George as the supporters. 'What was that for?' Xevera cried, rubbing the now sore part of her arm. Fred gave a quick nod towards his parents, and then muttered, 'The boys and I will see you on the train,' before running off.

'Thought you could get away before we said goodbye, did you?' George asked in mock amusement. 'Oh,' Xevera mumbled as they smiled at her. She had never had this before, from anyone quite frankly. Last year her parents had sent her over to an American sleep away for a summer, since she had always wanted to go to summer camp. Her dad had dropped her off, not daring to go and walk her into the airport since it was raining and he didn't want to get his hair wet.

'Well, bye,' she said, giving them both a quick awkward hug. Some feeling was welling up inside of her, and she wasn't able to identify it, nor did she like it. Sensing the awkwardness, George decided to end on a high mark, even if it meant getting uncountable death glares within the next five minutes.

'Oh by the way, Fred has products that need testing, and I'll be sending stuff by owl too.' He tried his hardest to keep a straight face when he got a peek of his wife's face out of the corner of his eye. 'I also put some stuff in your trunk-'

'You did WHAT?' Angelina practically screamed, for the first time earning her a couple of strange looks. But before there could be any further fighting, the whistle to the train blew, and everyone was being shoved on. Everyone stuck their heads out of the window, saying goodbye, as the train began to slowly pull away. 'Send us loads of owls,' Angelina said to Fred and Xevera, placing a loving hand on each of their faces.

'Send us a Hogwarts toilet seat!'

'George!'

'Only joking hon.' But the last thing was barely audible, as the train now was off, making everyone small, insignificant dots.

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**So I hope that chapter was likable. I realize that the ages don't really make sense whatsoever, but for the sake of the story, I decided that you guys can let it slide. Please, PLEASE review! Tell me what you think (I truly hope it's positive)**

**~ Paule**

**(You should all know that that's the french way for a girl to have the name "Paul")**


	3. Come Together

'Where do we go?' The train had just left the station and was hurtling on, with nothing stopping it, as it took its passengers to the famous school of magic. James and Teddy stood in the middle of rows of compartments, looking like a pair of deer in headlights, angry the girls hadn't told them where they were going.

'Great,' muttered James, as they quickly closed the door to a compartment that held a snogging couple, although the two hadn't seemed to even take any notice to the two first years.

'Yeah, I don't think Victoire is a teenage boy eating off Xevera's face, so thanks but no thanks,' said Teddy, not caring to hide his annoyance. 'Look, firstly, not my fault. Second, I don't think Mia would really appreciate it,' Teddy nodded in agreement. He had met Mia when he was ten, and knew factually that Mia would not put up with something she didn't like.

'And thirdly,' James continued, 'the girls won't be alone in a compartment. Remember, Xevera will be popping up in every compartment, she knows everyone. It's a wonder she's a muggle-born by the amount she knows. So basically,' he sighed as they closed the door to another compartment, one that held some giggling third year girls that had glared at James and Teddy like they had three heads.

'That will leave Victoire and Mia to torture some poor bloke, and if Xevera's there... Well then, the more the merrier for him!' James cried sarcastically.

They stumbled into a few more compartments, none being the right ones, as three of them were more snogging couples that didn't notice the compartment being open, two were filled with a tough looking group of seventh-year Slytherins, and one had had a couple of Ravenclaw boys playing exploding snap.

By the time they reached the seventh compartment, Teddy seemed about ready to burst into tears, until they slid open the door. Victoire was sitting there talking animatedly along side Mia, to a very scared first year.

He had sleek blonde hair that was practically the color of a virgin snow, and intense grey eyes. James and Teddy knew immediately it was Malfoy's son, as they had seen his father multiple times with James's father, talking and laughing. James also knew that before the war, Malfoy had been a death eater, and right little prick at school. Though the war had changed Malfoy, and shown the fact that Malfoy and his mother had been forced to act and do exactly what Lucius Malfoy, and Lord Voldemort wanted them to do. So after the war, Malfoy and the golden trio had had a truce, Uncle Ron was a bit begrudging at first, although as it was told that was how he seemed to always go about things.

The kid looked just like his father, although his face was much less pointed, like his mother, and at the moment, that face looked absolutely terrified. A girl with straight brown hair that reached just past her shoulder, was sitting next to him, flipping what looked like a muggle magazine, and looked up at the boys as they came in. James and Teddy didn't know her, but she grinned at them toothily, and beckoned them into the compartment, having them both sit across from her.

'So then, I was on those train tracks, about to face a death like no other, while having my eyes slowly burn out of my sockets,' Victoire said, her arms spread out around her and her eyes off in the distance, creating an admittedly dramatic affect. 'So I was watching all of this going OMFG!' Exclaimed Mia, her eyes bugging out of her face, as the brunette muttered, 'The "F" is for fun kids!'

Teddy and James both laughed openly in amusement, and the two crazed girls turned their attention towards the two boys. The Malfoy boy seemed to take note of this, as he was looking up at the ceiling, his face split into one of complete and utter joy.

'Hey you two,' the girls chorused, reaching in for hugs, quickly releasing as Mia got squished and screamed dramatically, '_No_! I can't breathe! It's not fair, I'm too young to die!'

The girl sitting across from all of them had an arrogant smirk on her face, as she took in the scene, looking them all up and down. James was getting rather annoyed by this so he said obnoxiously, 'And who the hell are _you_ to be looking at _us_ like _that_.'

To his and Teddy's shock, all the girls looked at each other, seeming to be stifling some laughter. 'Okay, really what's going on?' Demanded James, with Teddy beside him nodding vigorously in agreement. 'Hello to you to James,' the girl said smiling, 'Teddy,' she nodded in Teddy's direction. The girl stared James directly in the face for a few moments, causing the other girls to have troubles breathing, and falling onto each other, gripping at their bright red faces. James and Teddy still couldn't figure out _what_ was so funny.

The girl finally grinned evilly and whispered, 'Hello to you too Peppy.' At this the girls finally broke out into laughter that was so loud, people passing by must've thought that something seriously wrong was going on in their compartment. It took James a few moments of staring at the girls face to figure it out, until his face turned into the comical look of shock with the "O" mouth.

'Bloody hell!' He looked around at all the girls who had seemed to compose themselves to a level that they could at least look at James without having to fall to the floor in utter amusement. 'Is it really,' He looked at the girl who looked back, beaming, and then turned to Victoire whom had her eyes closed and was smiling, nodding. Mia just bounced around the compartment, shouting things out like, "Yep!" "Uh-huh!" Or, "You got it buckaroony!"

But after a few moments they heard Teddy say, 'Wait, what's going on? I don't get it.' Everyone slowly turned around to face him, as he had a look of bewilderment across his face. 'He doesn't know,' the girl muttered. 'Doesn't know what?' James asked, 'What do you mean "doesn't know what"?' Victoire asked incredulously, 'You bloody know well what. She doesn't parade around telling people this,' She gestured to the girl up and down. 'Do you think we should tell him?'

'Of course we should.'

'But he's also-'

'I know what he is,' James snapped at Mia, causing her to sink back into her seat. 'He's my best mate.'

'Which I think is the point Mia is trying to make. He might be offended I never told him in the first place,' the girl retorted, matching his stern tone. 'What do you mean? I've never even met you before!' Teddy exclaimed to the girl, waving his hands in the air.

'That's Xevera.' Victoire blurted out to Teddy, blushing a deep red at the looks she was receiving. But if anyone thought Teddy had looked confused before, he now looked completely baffled. 'She's a Metamorphmagus as well.'

The air suddenly grew very thick, and it became completely silent, except for the sound of the train, grinding down the tracks. Teddy turned very slowly, to look at Xevera, who everyone seemed to be staring at now, even the Malfoy boy, who everyone had forgotten about, and who seemed to find this all exceptionally entertaining.

Teddy stared at her for a moment, and she smiled weakly, making jazz hands around her face and went, 'Tada!' But despite Xevera's comic way of going about it, Teddy didn't seem to be satisfied. Everything went a bit silent. The Malfoy boy continued to look at everyone, clearly finding this all very exciting.

Victoire and Mia stared out the window at the passing fields and oblivious muggle farms, and proceeded to look at each other. 'Vic and I are going to go and find the food trolley. That, and we also need to go and find. Um, a friend,' Mia muttered uncomfortably, before the two girls rushed out.

James looked up to see Xevera looking down at her feet as she intertwined her hands together, glancing up every once in a while at Teddy, although Teddy seemed to be suddenly particularly interested in one of trunks up above.

By this point, Teddy's hair seemed to be a bright red, while Xevera's had changed into a deep forest green. Xevera's blue eye caught James's green eye, and he gave her a sympathetic look. She returned the look with a small grim smile, and looked back down at her hands, pulling at her ring finger.

'I'll go and look in on Fred,' she said shakily, looking up at Teddy, who still seemed to be completely fascinated with the trunk, to a point of frustration. Xevera's hair seemed to turn a little bit darker, as she bit her lip and jumped up, slamming the compartment door behind her. 'What was that for?' Teddy's eyes flicked over to James, and back up to suitcase. 'What you talking about?'

'"What you talking about"' James mimicked, narrowing his eyes at Teddy, and Teddy now looked at him, all acts of pretending to not be aware gone. 'Well you'd think that if one of your best friends was a Metamorphmagus, and all of your friends seemed to know about it, they would have told you.' Teddy sneered. 'Look, Teddy, three people knew she was a Metamorphmagus besides her parents. Even Fred and his parents didn't know until this morning.' Teddy's eyes widened, not able to hide his surprise, 'Seriously?' They were as good as her parents and brother. If they didn't know, it was a shock anyone did.

'Yeah, and Vic and I didn't even know that's what she really looked like until today. Mia's known her since they were four or something. But she started changing herself, I think, when she was nine. Not long after she found her powers.'

Teddy leaned back into his seat, letting his head loll back, staring up at the trunk directly above him through the bars of the shelf. 'That's odd, I showed signs right when I was born apparently.'

'Well remember she's a muggle-born, so things were probably a bit different.'

'You think I should apologize?' James now leaned back into the same position next to him, thinking about this. 'No. I don't.' he paused and thought for a bit more reasoning. 'As long as I've known Xevera, I've found if you don't say anything, and make it clear your mad at her, she'll drive herself mad by apologizing to you over and over. But if it's something that's not that big of deal, like this, then you should just act normal, like nothing's happened. No awkwardness, nothing. As if, legitimately, nothing has happened.'

Teddy nodded next to him, and the two boys remained silent until, they heard a small cough. It was then Teddy and James remembered the fact that they weren't alone in the compartment, and looked up to see a very pink Malfoy.

The two boys sat up bolt right from their used to be relaxed positions. 'I'm sorry, I didn't quite know whether to leave or not,' the boy quickly stumbled through his sentence, looking at the ground the entire time. 'I-I'm Scorpius by the way. Scorpius M-Malfoy.' Both feeling a bit bad at Scorpius's guilty state, they slid down the seat so they were directly opposite him.

'Hello Scorpius, I'm James Potter,' James stuck out his hand, shaking Scorpius's hand quite vigorously. 'I know, I've been to your house a few times.' James gave him a blank look, and tried to look back into his recollection, but couldn't remember ever seeing Scorpius before. 'I've seen your dad a few times, he's a nice bloke, and I've met your mother as well. Are you sure you've been with your parents to my house? Last I saw them was at one of our family Quidditch games.'

'Yeah, I actually sat next to you at dinner.' Scorpius looked extremely uncomfortable, and James could feel his face burn, and he was positive that Teddy was trying not to laugh. 'Well, sorry about my daft friend here. I'm Teddy Lupin, Metamorphmagus.' Teddy also stuck out his hand, shaking Scorpius's hand in the same vigorous manner James had. 'Yeah, I know, you're a Metamorphmagus, because well-'

'Oh right.' Teddy turned to James and stuck on a solemn face, and to his delight, James played along. 'You know what this means James.'

'Yes, I believe we both know what we have to do.' Scorpius looked absolutely terrified as the two boys faced him. 'Who are your friends Scorpius?'

'I-I-I don't r-really have one.'

'Well then, since you know,' Teddy paused dramatically and widened his eyes, 'Things. I guess there's no choice.' James stood up and walked the one foot distance over to Scorpius, and it took all Scorpius had to stand his ground. Or sit it. To his absolute horror, James and Teddy broke into wide grins, but James said, 'I guess this means you get to be our friend Scorpius!' They continued to smile at him, and Scorpius couldn't have been more pleased, or shell-shocked for that matter.

'Really? I thought you guys would get angry or something!'

'Naw, besides, everyone would find out that Xevera and I are Metamorphmagi anyhow, and if you're our friend, well then we would've told you anyways.' Teddy said, reaching over to pat Scorpius on the shoulder, and James sat back down. 'So what did you think of the girls?' James smirked, wanting to immediately delve into getting to know his new friend.

'Well, they were terrifying quite honestly,' Scorpius said sheepishly. 'Mia and Victoire came into the compartment and simply started ranting about the strangest things.' Scorpius screwed up his face at the mere thought of the episode from earlier. 'Then Xevera sauntered in, started poking fun at them, then joined them. She eventually sat back and they all calmed down and just started joking. Then Xevera started talking about some sort of train accident, and Victoire went off, until Mia joined her, and then that's when you guys came in,' Scorpius finished, making Teddy laugh, 'Yeah. Those girls are a handful.'

'But they're all nice,' Scorpius said, almost a little defensively. 'Oh don't get me wrong, they're really wonderful, probably the nicest girls I've ever met, but they're all very different. So when they muck around, they get a bit wild.' James nodded in agreement, 'Mia can be really quiet, likes to let adults think she's sweet and innocent, a real people pleaser. But outside with friends, she's slightly maniacal, although she hates getting into any sort of trouble. She's probably the quietest.'

'Then there's Victoire,' Teddy picked up from where James left off, and Scorpius leaned back listening to the two boys talk about their friends. 'She's a daddy's little girl, if you know what I mean. Very much a princess, loves the color pink, and anything cute and cuddly. She's the whiniest of the three. But she _loves_ getting dramatic, and any gossip of any kind sets her off, she wants to know everything about everyone. And it's funny, because Xevera probably knows _everything_, but she doesn't tell Victoire, and it drives her _mad_,' Teddy and James laughed at the thought.

It was true, Xevera knew everything, since people saw her as trustworthy, but even though Victoire was one of her best friends, she wouldn't let on anything. Everyone knew that Victoire just couldn't keep her mouth shut, so Xevera would always heavily imply that she knew something Victoire didn't.

'Anyways,' Teddy continued, 'Victoire is the girliest, plain and simple.'

'What about Xevera,' Scorpius queried, absentmindedly picking at a loose strand from the bench. Teddy and James both groaned, having just sat in positions where Teddy's back was against the wall nearest the door, and James's against that by the window, placing their legs up on the bench. 'Don't even get me _started_,' James grumbled, crooking one leg and sending a hand through his messy black hair. 'She's _the_ wildest of the bunch, by _far_, and it sure doesn't help that she spends most of her time with George Weasley and his son, Fred. Xevera likes teasing people, although she always does it in good spirit, never in a mean way. She's the most open; I'll put it that way. Almost all her friends are guy friends, if you're a girl, and you're her friend… Well, it's not common. She loves getting into trouble, getting dirty, knows about every swear word and dirty sexual term.' James and Teddy rolled their eyes and Teddy continued, 'She loves music, that's one thing. She has this strange muggle, thin box, called an "I-touch." Apparently it contains all her music. Mia has the same exact thing,' Teddy shrugged.

'She's the _complete_ opposite of Victoire, it's a wonder they're friends quite frankly. Xevera's all about climbing trees, getting in trouble, and Victoire's all about clothes, and gossip.' Scorpius nodded, intent on listening, when the compartment door burst open, revealing a tall, black boy. He had some black powder smudged on his nose, and he appeared to be panting. He had light brown hair, and hazel eyes, giving him an unusually attractive appearance.

'Can I join you,' he puffed, wiping a bead of sweat off his brow. 'Sure but what happened to you?' James asked, jumping to conclusions. 'Someone set off Peruvian instant darkness powder. I think it was a first year girl, and a second year boy.' Scorpius, Teddy, and James all exchanged meaningful looks, all knowing very well who was guilty as charged.

'Then the girl, and two other girls ran off with a bunch of candy from the cart.' The boy plunked himself down next to Scorpius, and received three looks of alarm. 'Victoire, Xevera, and Mia stole candy from the cart?' James squawked. The boy looked up from brushing some of the darkness powder off of his shirt with an amused look, 'You know them?' '

'Unfortunately,' James muttered, and Teddy and James set off once more, in describing the three girls, but now with a bit of Scorpius's input. The boy laughed at the end, slapping his knee for affect. 'They sound insane.'

'They are, and _we_ have to deal with them.'

'Ah,' the boy wiped a small tear from his eye. 'But where are my manners, I'm Xeno, Xeno Thomas.'

'I'm James Potter.'

'Scorpius Malfoy.'

'Teddy Lupin.' The three boys, listed off, all pointing to themselves, until once more, the compartment door was busted open, this time by three crazed looking girls. They were easily identifiable as being Mia, Xevera, and Victoire, although they were covered in a large amount of Peruvian powder, and were holding large bundles of sweets.

Pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, chocolate frogs, licorice wands, and much more. 'My god it's those loonies!' Xeno cried out, backing up against Scorpius, who James could see, was not very happy with this seating ordeal.

'Well hello to you too,' Xevera replied to Xeno's melodramatic reaction, pursing her lips and widening her eyes comically as she said it. 'You're the crazies that set the Peruvian powder and took the sweets.' Croaked a wide-eyed Xeno. 'Right you are my good man, right you are!' Xevera chimed back victoriously.

'Set off the powder, barrage the old sweet trolley lady, and make a swift dash for it.'

'You're mad.'

'We tried to tell you,' said Teddy, helping himself to a cauldron cake that had fallen out of Mia's loot, as the three girls sat down. Xevera sat herself in between Xeno and Scorpius, handing a gleeful Scorpius a chocolate frog, and a wary Xeno one as well. Victoire sat next to the window, James on her other side, and Scorpius across from her, with Mia on James's other side, leaving Teddy against the wall.

The seven children started munching down on the sweets, rather noisily, and Teddy could've sworn that Xevera's coughing fit sounded an awful lot like the word "sorry", over and over and over again in a rather wheezy fashion.

Teddy nodded to her at one point, and everything suddenly became normal once more. The rest of the way, the children chatted, trying to hastily finish off at least a quarter of their stolen sweets, which by the time they were forced to change, seemed nearly impossible.

Scorpius appeared to be rather chatty by the time he had gotten to know everybody. 'Wish it was like before,' Xevera joked. 'Now we can't get you to shut the hell up.' All the children laughed, and continued to josh around and get to know one another. That was until a very large, black lake, and large gleaming castle came into view.

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**Decided to post chapter three the same day as two, just because I'm that special ^_^**

**I hope you all like the new characters, and in case you're wondering, yes, Xeno Thomas is the son of Luna Lovegood and Dean Thomas. On the HP wiki it says she meets someone on travels, but I didn't wanna make ANOTHER character, so I was like, Dean get over here. Hope y'all like it! Please read and review!**

**Here is Xevera's hair chart now!**

**Xevera Hair colors:**

**Brown – technical hair color**

**Deep Green – sad**

**Black – angry**

**Grey - shocked**

**Pink – Happiness (love)**

**Red – embarrassed**

**Lime green – mischievous**

**Pure white – Scared**

**Other – For fun (happy)**

**~ Paule**


	4. That Means A Lot

**Hey everyone, so I've gotten a few subscribers, which is pretty exciting, but I NEED reviews, otherwise I just may stop writing this, which I find impossible since I love writing this story. So, PLEASE PLEASE Review! (And maybe fit a subscription and some favoritism.) Thanks!**

* * *

'Gee, Uncle Ron was right, it's like McGonagall's mouth disappears right off her face!' James teased a very wet, cold Scorpius outside the Great Hall. In the boats on the way to Hogwarts, Scorpius had ridden with Xevera and James. Xevera had thought it would be particularly funny to send Scorpius on a midnight swim, (or as it turned out drown.) So when they were halfway across the lake, Scorpius had dumbly believed James that Santa had come to say hello to him from across the lake. Xevera had also gotten very excited, as she had always wanted to meet Santa, but still seized the opportunity to send Scorpius into the glassy black water, then getting angry with James for joking about seeing Santa.

The two played dumb, yelling out in a mad panic that Scorpius had fallen in. Teddy even pretended to faint for the affect. Hagrid of course came to the rescue, rowing heroically over to the "grief" stricken first years. But it didn't go as planned. As it turned out, Hagrid would have gotten Scorpius right out, if the giant squid hadn't decided to go "swimming" with Scorpius. So for almost 15 minutes, Hagrid had tried desperately to save Scorpius, while the squid grabbed Scorpius, sending him round like he was on a Ferris wheel.

Finally, making sure the children promised not to tell, Hagrid used a bit of magic with a tiny, frilly, pink parasol to get Scorpius back into his boat, giving him his very own gigantic coat. Xevera and James had laughed all the way back to the castle, although to their "surprise", Scorpius didn't seem to find any of it funny at all.

When McGonagall had greeted them outside of the great hall, she had not seemed to be very pleased with the whole arrangement, thinking that Scorpius had jumped in on his own accord, expressing it with the comment, 'Well. I see we have our own self-acclaimed Olympic swimmer.' After that, Scorpius hadn't seemed very keen to forgive them any time soon, even though all thoughts of forgiveness quickly evaporated as Professor McGonagall had pushed open the great hall doors, revealing many pairs of eyes staring at the first years.

The first years entered the great hall with much interest as they looked at the ceiling, some squirming at the abnormal amount of attention. Then, there were some, like the now golden seven, who took it into their stride. 'Fred!' Xevera waved wildly along with James, and Victoire. Fred looked around for the source of noise with his other friends, until they all spotted Xevera, and started waving wildly. All the boys knew her, as they came over to Amber Cottage whenever.

There was Sam, a wild boy with curly black hair, who was just a bit out there and could only ever be shut up by Xevera. Then there was Kleo, a Eurasian boy who used his expanded knowledge of things when telling jokes, and who could amuse Mia for hours, as well as scare her half to death.

There were a few other boys who Xevera hadn't ever really gotten to know, although they, knew all about her, James, Teddy, Mia, and Victoire.

While the rest of the first years scurried up to the front, Xevera and James stopped until they reached Scorpius, at which they grabbed the boy from either side. 'Look, Fred! We pushed him into the lake!' Xevera said proudly, as she and James gave dramatic hand gestures towards a frowning Scorpius. Fred pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, saying, 'I'm so proud, wait till dad hears!' The three grinned, Scorpius not so much, and hurried back to their friends.

'I can't believe we're here!' Mia squealed to an equally excited Xevera. 'I know, we've read so much about the place,' Xevera replied. 'Oh god, don't tell me you two've already read "Hogwarts, A History"!' Xeno grouched next to Xevera.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, glowering down at Xeno. She had a very old, filthy hat sitting on a stool, which everyone seemed to be staring at intently. After a few moments, a rip in the brim of the hat opened like a very large mouth, and began to sing.

'Oh you may not think I'm clever or very clean and nice,

But you should all be worried that one of you might have lice.

I know what I am talking about when I tell you all,

Where I think each one of you will fit in best of all.

You might belong in Slytherin where they are cunning and quick,

But they all know some sleek nice ways to make you all feel sick.

You could belong in Gryffindor where they all have big hearts,

Those Gryffindors know true bravery and like to have a lark.

I might place you in Ravenclaw where they are smart and clever,

You have to have cool intellect and not be a brainless gamer.

You might belong in Hufflepuff where dwell the kind and loyal,

A Hufflepuff is a true friend and never will go spoiled.

You might have complete faith in me,

And if not then your loss.

I'm simply here to do my craft,

I am the sorting hat.'

Everyone broke into loud applause, while Teddy muttered, 'I just don't get it, what is a hat supposed to do all day?'

'Andrews, Greta' A short, pug faced girl with long honey hair ran to the front, to immediately be placed in "Slytherin." The table at the far left began cheering as they welcomed the newest member. As Professor McGonagall called for, "Aphistr, Rick," Teddy groaned. 'This is going to take forever.'

'Speak for yourself,' Xeno whispered quietly, rolling his eyes in agreement, as Aphistr went to join Ravenclaw. 'Oh you should you should not be talking, I'm gonna be the very last one called. Look at how many of us there are, I'll be here forever,' Xevera moaned, her head falling on her chest, folding her legs underneath her to fall to the floor. Victoire sat down next to her, knowing she'd have plenty of time to kill as well.

After what seemed ages, Professor McGonagall finally rang out, 'Lupin, Teddy.' Teddy seemed frightened out of his wits, not moving, so James pushed him forward, and with great effort at that. He stumbled forward, slowly making his way towards the stool. As the hat was lowered, he clamped his eyes shut, grabbing onto the stool until his knuckles turned white. After the first second of it being on his head, he seemed to relax a bit, opening his eyes, but still not letting his hands budge. After about 30 seconds, the hat called out, 'Slytherin,' to which the Slytherin table cheered.

When the hat was lifted up from Teddy's head, his face had gone completely white, as had all of his friends'. None of them had seen this coming. They had all sort of mad the ludicrous assumption that they would all end up in Gryffindor, but all the same Teddy made his way over.

Soon after Scorpius was called up. He was much less nervous than Teddy, but still shuffled up there at snails pace, mainly due to the weight of Hagrid's large coat. As soon as the hat touched his head, the hat's mouth opened, but closed abruptly, only permitting a small peep to escape its brim. After a long, tense minute, the hat called out, 'Ravenclaw!' So Scorpius got off the stool to join the Ravenclaws, but looked extremely shaken up, glancing back at all of his friends desperately.

When Mia was called, she ran up so enthusiastically, she almost toppled over the stool, but instead made it on at the very least, bringing it down with her. After a very disgruntled McGonagall helped her up, the hat was lowered onto her head, but just before it hit, it practically screamed, 'Gryffindor!' So Mia ran off to the Gryffindor table for once looking slightly terrified.

After what must've been a nice 15 minutes, James was called, to which he sauntered up to the stool, looking like he owned the world, but everyone knew that he must've been pissing himself. He couldn't be split from Teddy, but he had to be in Gryffindor for his family. The hat sat on his head for what must've been only five seconds, before it called out, "Slytherin." James got off the stool with a strange sort of expression that seemed to be a mix of relief and worry, as he stumbled next to Teddy rather hazily.

Xeno was placed into Gryffindor and ran gladly to Mia's side, as Victoire did the same but for Ravenclaw with Scorpius. You really couldn't miss those two with their silvery hair.

'Zillia, Xevera.'

'Oh my god finally!' Xevera hopped up from where she'd been sitting and skipped up to the front, grabbing the hat from Professor McGonagall, jamming onto her head. A few seconds went by.

Then a minute.

Then two.

Then five, and even ten.

Finally the hat opened its mouth, and then snapped it shut, just as it had done with Scorpius. Then it opened it again, and snapped it shut once more. Xevera looked extremely bored murmuring once in a while, "We've been over this," or, "Uh-huh." When 15 minutes had gone by, Xevera said, 'Make up your god damned mind would you?'

'Slytherin!' It took a moment for everyone to start clapping, at the realization that something had finally happened. Xevera slammed the hat to the ground, skipping off to the Slytherin table to sit between Teddy and James. You knew it had been a very long, boring period of time by the fact that McGonagall hadn't even made note of the fact that Xevera had used, "inappropriate language."

When the feast had finished, all the first years were lead up to the dorms. Everyone, even people who had grown up in the wizarding world, were fascinated with the talking paintings. They all said hello to the wide eyed first years, waving, curtsying, or introducing themselves. Mia and Xeno along with the rest of the Gryffindors finally came up to a large painting of a fat lady in it, who when she saw the prefect leading them asked, 'Password?'

'Harry Potter.'

The portrait swung open to reveal a cozy little room with a large fireplace, bookshelves, windows, desks, and large cushy armchairs and couches. The prefect then directed them to two, stone spiraling staircases. 'Girls on the left, boys on the right. As you've heard, the password for this week is "Harry Potter." Four to five to a room, and I suggest you bunk with people you like, because you're going to have to bunk with them for the next seven years.' He looked sternly at all the first years, clearly hoping to make an effect. 'Now tut-tut, off to bed.'

After a long first day at dinner, the seven children were exhausted, having had a long day, and were all sitting with Fred, Kleo, and Sam. 'So what was your favorite subject?' Asked Fred, shoving a particularly large piece of meatloaf into his mouth. 'Err, Charms,' Mia said, looking at Fred in disgust. 'Same,' said Kleo, looking at Fred in the same manner as Mia. 'I dunno guys, I think my favorite was herbology,' piped up Victoire, as Xeno looked down the table, crying out, 'Same!' The two high-fived. 'Mine was History of magic.' Scorpius took a large swig of pumpkin juice, while Xevera spat hers out. 'Are you crazy?'

'What,' Scorpius frowned.

'That class is _SO_ boring!'

'Yeah,' Fred said from the other side of Xevera. 'Dad, Xevera, and I are trying to figure out ways of banishing Binns for good, I think you're the first one to like that class since Binns was alive.'

'I don't think he was anymore interesting alive than he is dead,' James complained, prodding a piece of broccoli. Everyone nodded in agreement, besides Scorpius. 'I thought it was extremely interesting,' Scorpius defended. 'I thought it was an extremely good place to nap.' Xevera retorted, while James, Teddy, and Mia nodded. 'She placed her head on my lap, her legs on Ted and James and then snoozed. We slept with our heads on the desk, although I had a particularly hard time since, _someone's_ head was in my lap.' Mia glared across at Xevera, to which Xevera pointed her fork at her with a piece of quiche on it. 'You might want to work on the comfortableness of your lap.'

'Anyhow,' Sam interrupted, turning back to Scorpius. 'While I think there's something mentally wrong with you for finding any interest in that classroom, what happened with the hat last night?'

'Oh,' Scorpius looked down into his soup, turning slightly pink. 'Dad was in Slytherin. He's a great guy, but I know he was really hoping I'd be in Slytherin as well. The hat seemed to be having a difficult time. It was thinking of putting me in Hufflepuff, but I think we both knew we were pushing it by putting me in Ravenclaw anyhow.' Everyone continued to stare at him, clearly expecting more. 'But umm,' Scorpius cleared his throat, 'Me taking forever, what about you Xevera?' He turned to the girl next to her who was gleefully enjoying her meal, her hair bright yellow.

She paused before putting a grape in her mouth, considering what had just been asked. 'Oh, that. Yeah well, the hat just couldn't make up its damn mind. First it considered me for Slytherin, then for Gryffindor. It thought about Ravenclaw then Hufflepuff-'

'_You_ in _Hufflepuff_?' Mia snorted, then noticed Xevera glaring. 'Right, sorry.'

'It really considered Slytherin and Gryffindor though, then said, well….' She stopped, looking down at her plate and blushing like Scorpius had, except her hair turned bright red as well. 'What?' asked Fred. She shook her head, her hair turning her favorite shade of indigo. 'Nothing, just said I wasn't evil, just mischievous and it made up its mind is all.' Everyone ad-libbed for a second, finding this answer perfectly acceptable, all except Fred, who was still looking at her strangely.

'My favorite was defense against the dark arts, definitely,' James beamed, continuing the earlier conversation. 'Oh, same!' Xevera smiled. 'But my other favorite was potions, for sure.' Now it was Scorpius's turn to choke on his food. 'Excuse me?'

'Ah, I don't blame you, potions isn't bad,' Sam said from across the table, inspecting a slice of pie.

'Well of course you love potions, cause Slughorn loves _you_.' Xeno rolled his eyes at Xevera.

'Then that means I have potential.'

'Or you're the only one who'll pass that class.'

'If it makes you feel better, McGonagall hates me.'

'Oh I wonder why,' Victoire said sarcastically. 'What?' Asked Kleo, seeing Xevera and Fred smirk at one another. 'I added disappearing ink into McGonagall's ink so she thought she was going mad,' Fred said. 'Then I told some Slytherins who had class with us that I had candy. Course they stole it, so we had two with nosebleeds that wouldn't stop, and four with ton tongues,' Xevera and Fred laughed wickedly, high fiving. 'You two are unbeliev-'

'Ably awesome!' Xeno interrupted Kleo, who glowered for a couple seconds. 'Come on they'll be just like the Weasley twins!' Everyone turned to look at Xeno, with strange looks. 'No shit Sherlock,' James said dubiously, knocking on Xeno's head, just to make sure something was there. 'George is Fred's dad, and Xevera's… I dunno, but that's kind of the point.'

'That would be why he looks exactly like his dad and uncle, could very well be their triplet, if his hair wasn't deeper and his skin slightly tanned.' Teddy explained. 'Oh.' The kids all laughed at Xeno as some people passed by. 'And anyhow don't worry, after all these years I'm sure Pomfrey has some of the nougats remedy,' Fred said waving his hand, as if the idea of a Slytherin bleeding half to death wasn't a very big deal.

'Your fellow Slytherins can't be too pleased with you,' Scorpius raised an eyebrow. 'Well I wasn't there, so they don't know. And besides, it was just a couple of thuggies.'

'Yeah, I don't have anything against Slytherins… Well not the new ones, since they're now the badass house, but the last one… From mum and dad's time… Well let's not talk about that.'

They table went silent for a moment before Mia mumbled, 'I can't believe none of us are in the same house…'

'Oh don't worry!' Kleo piped up, 'Honestly, it's very different now a days. It's like being in the same house, honestly. You can be in each others dorms and common rooms-'

'Eat at the same tables, obviously,' Sam added.

'You can't be in each others dorms after hours, but still, you'll be fine. Nothing will change.' Relief seemed to flow throughout the table, as they all wound down for the evening. Dropping his utensils and napkin on his empty plate, Teddy let them all disappear with a small pop, along with his goblet. 'See you. James you coming?'

'Mmm, ' James got up, his things disappearing with a small pop as well, and with that the two boys headed out. 'You guys get any room mates?' asked Scorpius. 'Oh yeah!' Victoire said completely enthusiastically while Mia and Xevera exchanged looks. 'There's this girl, Natasha, she's _SO_ cool! _And_ pretty!'

'In other words, she's just like Victoire,' Xevera mumbled. It was easy to detect the jealousy. Xevera and Victoire were total opposites, but yet they had made it as best friends, so this was bound to happen, and Xevera knew she probably couldn't compete. 'No need to get moody about it.' Victoire pouted, her things disappearing. 'Just promise you're not going to forget who came here as your _best friends_.' Mia emphasized, not looking up. 'Of course not, it's just kind of cool to have someone like you.'

'Oh yeah, who needs a loser who's nothing like you,' Xevera replied coolly, her hair turning black. Xevera didn't get truly angry often, but when she did, it got ugly. Mia was a bit more short-fused, but didn't truly express it until later. 'You're not a _total_ loser.'

'Oh gee thanks, I'm just a _bit _of a loser, that _really_ makes me feel better.'

'No, it's just; you're not like me really. You guys are my best friends, its just it's nice to have someone who is into the same stuff as you.'

'Just don't come crying to us when you figure out who your true friends are,' Mia snapped, getting up and storming out of the great hall, clearly having had enough. Right before she left she caught Xevera's eye, giving her an apologetic look. Victoire looked to everyone for a bit of support, but found she was clearly not going to get any. 'Fine, be that way. Maybe I should go and find my friend who isn't a total loon.'

'Says the girl who was the one to knock out the candy lady and gave a long description of how she got hit by a train,' Xevera smirked, letting her eyes flick over to Victoire for only a second.

Victoire stared at her for a minute, then got up and walked down the table to a girl with hazel hair. She wasn't nearly as pretty as Victoire, but still had her looks about her, with a slightly turned up nose, and wicked violet eyes. Victoire tapped her on the shoulder, saying something to her that the boys, (and Xevera,) couldn't make out. The two girls looked over at the group for a second, until the girl slowly nodded, getting up and walking out with Victoire. 'Tootles!' Victoire wiggled her fingers at them as she walked by.

'Not taking sides,' Sam and Kleo said at the same time. Xevera looked at them with an irked expression, 'I didn't expect you to. That'd be ridiculous. Vic 'll come around.' Although she didn't look too sure. 'That was completely bitchy,' Xeno stared at the place where Victoire had been sitting only minutes before. 'Well Mia has a really sweet girl in her dorm, Eileen. I really like her a lot.'

'Well what about yourself?'

'Oh me? There's one girl named Tamar, she and I actually became really friendly. But there was a really strange number of girls, so it's just us two, but we were told they might add a first year when we're second years. Don't tell Vic this, but Dominique keeps telling me she wants to be in Slytherin, but you know how her family would react. Or at least Fleur for that matter; she wants the whole blooming family to be Ravenclaws. Anyhow, Tamar and I are thinking we'll snatch her up next year, since either way we'll get a firsty, so we'll just stick around.'

'What did Vic think of Eileen and Tamar?' Asked Scorpius, who Xevera had just placed her head on. 'Oh, she was too busy with _Natasha_,' Xevera said in a clearly exasperated tone. 'It'll be fine, really, I'm sure.'

'Yeah, I know. It's just so typical Victoire.'

'Well why don't we all go up to bed, and maybe it'll clear up,' Kleo suggested. All the children nodded, getting up and walking out like zombies.

* * *

**Hey guys, short chapter, I know. Share your thoughts please, I'm gonna skip on to second year in the next chapter, just since I don't feel like there's much to say about their first year right now. Thanks everybody, PLEASE review!**

**~ Paule**


	5. Fixing a Hole

Snow was on the ground surrounding Hogwarts, even though it was only October, and Victoire was doing her very best to warm herself up. She couldn't help but think that this was one of the weather's "mood swings," as her dad called it.

Natasha had promised to meet her here in a couple minutes and wished she would hurry up. She looked off to the side as she heard some snickering, only to see Xevera, Sam, and Fred. About a foot behind them were Kleo and Mia, clearly off in a totally different world of conversation. They looked up for a moment, glimpsing Victoire, and shuffled away awkwardly.

Victoire flashed back to the first day of Hogwarts and their big fight. They had all made up afterwards, water under the bridge, but it hadn't taken long for Victoire to slip away again. It had been two years, and Victoire didn't speak much to the others anymore. Of course she had to speak a bit to Fred, Xevera, James, and Teddy, but only because they were related, (Xevera good enough.) She had a newer, cooler group of friends now, as she reassured herself. She had Natasha, Bridget, Lucy, and Lulu; all exactly like her.

They were up to date with everything that was "in", they gossiped, they teased, and they ruled the school. Or so they liked to think. The weird thing was, they still didn't really know Victoire like Xevera and Mia did, but she always told herself they would. Sometimes she just wished that she could go up and talk to them, but she knew that that simply wouldn't work.

Many of her relatives had joined Hogwarts in the past couple of years. Just this year, Lily joined, being placed into Gryffindor, Louis joined his older sister in Ravenclaw, and Molly went into Hufflepuff. The previous year, Albus had become a proud Gryffindor, as did Rose, while Dominique had gone off to be a Slytherin with Xevera and her friend.

All of the kids scuttled back to the castle, but Mia stayed behind, trying to indicate to Kleo to go on without her. She winced, as there was a loud bang and a small puff of smoke where Xevera, Fred, and Sam were. Clearly a new WWW product gone wrong.

She stared at Victoire a minute, then slowly made her way over, her head held high. 'Hi.' She said timidly, her hazel eyes examining Victoire's glossy, silvery hair. 'Hello,' Victoire replied coolly. 'Been a while.'

'It sure has.' Mia nodded, looking off back at the warm, inviting castle. 'How've you been?' Victoire didn't reply, rather than just run a hand through her hair and look off at Hagrid's house, which judged by the smoke bellowing out of the chimney look more than inviting.

'Look Vic, let's just cut to the chase.' Victoire smiled a bit under her scarf at the nickname. 'I know that it really has been a while, and that this confrontation must be abrupt. Well not confrontation rather than acknowledgment. We miss you, this is ridiculous, please come back. I know you miss us too.' Victoire tried not to give in, straightening herself up a bit. 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Mia rolled her eyes, 'Oh please, Vic, don't do this. I know you, it hasn't been that long.'

'Yes, but it's been long enough for you to finally apologize.'

'Apologize?' Mia asked incredulously. 'For _what_?' Victoire drew herself up even more, only to slouch back down, realizing that she hadn't actually thought this far ahead. 'Ugh, Victoire don't lie to me. You always were a terrible liar. That's saying something coming from the world's worst liar.' Victoire smirked a bit, 'The Twinsies never did seem to be able to teach us the "art".' Over the years, people had started to refer to Xevera and Fred as either, "Twinsies," or, "The Weasley twins," even if Xevera wasn't an actual Weasley.

'See? So just, come back.'

'No.' The smile slid off Mia's face, being replaced by a look of pain. 'Why?'

'I have friends who are more like me now. Not like… That,' Victoire indicated the Gryffindor tower where everyone undoubtedly was right now. Mia frowned at the way her old friend referred to them all. 'That's mean Vic. Really. We care about you.'

'Yeah, well…' Mia gave her a long, weird look before shaking her head. 'I tried. Just know,' she paused, her foot hovering just above some uncrushed snow. 'You're always welcome.' Victoire made no sign of having heard her, so Mia just ducked her head sadly, heading back up to the castle.

A moment passed of the wind blowing in Victoire's face, and she didn't quite know what to think. She hadn't talked to any of them in ages, especially Mia. The last time she'd been forced to talk to any of them was Xeno, and that hadn't gone down particularly well.

It had been in potions in September. Neither she nor Xeno had had a partner, so they were forced to work together. She recalled the awkwardness between them. Victoire had barely been able to look him in the eye. She had said some pretty nasty things about all of them before she had ditched them, (not like Xevera hadn't shared some of her colorful vocabulary,) and one comment had been about Xeno. Let's just say he hadn't taken it too well. They hadn't really talked much, only when he needed her to do something, even then going to Xevera for help, since she was such the potions master.

'Mia, what the bloody hell have you done?' Xevera and Mia had partnered that day, and it was quite the interesting one at that. 'I dunno, I just tossed everything in, this class is boring.'

'We're lucky that Slughorn likes me too much to get angry and mark me down, maybe we'll get something out of this.' She said with a heavy sigh. Xevera really couldn't fight with Mia's trouble making, seeing as the professors were all constantly going after her and George for something or other.

'I think we just did!' Mia was on her toes, looking into the bottom of the cauldron, beckoning Xevera to do the same. They were both pretty short, so just standing there and looking down wasn't really an option. 'Awwww!' They had both cried in unison, as Mia reached down, pulling out a small, pink, fuzzy thing.

At first it had looked like a pygmy puff. But then, Victoire had quickly realized, that she actually didn't know what it was. It looked exactly like a baby hedgehog, except its body was pink and fuzzy, not brown and spiky, while a pygmy puff was fluffy and a perfect sphere.

'Since you technically created him. Well _we_, since this is _my_ cauldron,' Xevera pointed to herself very importantly. 'Is this technically my first godchild?'

'Sure.'

'Yes!'

'Let's name him Stanley.'

'**Stanley**?'

'Yea,' Mia said looking at this little creature with a face of adoration, while Xevera looked at Mia as if she had finally gone round the bend. 'There is no way we are naming it Stanley,' Xevera retched, making a face as if there was a putrid smell in the room. 'We're naming it Arnold.'

'**Arnold**?'

'You heard me!' Xevera and Mia were now so close together, their noses almost touched, but not quite, because even though Xevera was pretty short, Mia was still shorter. 'How about you just name it Gerald and get it over with?'

'**Gerald**?' Mia and Xevera whirled around to face Teddy, the source of the suggestion. 'Sure why not?'

'Cause that's the worse name I've ever bloody heard, that's why!' Xevera screeched. 'And what's going on over here?' Xevera and Mia whirled back around to come face to face with Professor Slughorn. 'Professor,' Xevera masqueraded a smile, using her endearing appearance to her best ability. 'Mia and I made a teeny mistake in our potion, but,' Xevera said hurriedly as Slughorn's face began to fall in disappointment. 'We've created something new, something, never seen before!' She lifted up Stanley/Arnold for the professor to see, his face turning delighted as he held the little – whatever it was – in his hands. 'What did you name him?'

'Stanley!'

'Arnold!' The two girls cried at the same time, the words becoming jumbled. 'Arnley, what a lovely name.' The two girls had bemused expressions as they looked at each other, but shrugged it off, seeing it appeared that they weren't going to be receiving "Troll" grades anytime soon.

The three fawned over Arnley for a few minutes before Teddy walked over, carrying a large pile of ingredients, which knocked into Professor Slughorn, knocking Arnley out a nearby window.

'_**Arnley**_!' The girls screamed, staring out the window. The back of Mia's neck turned red, and Xevera's hair turned dangerously black, as they twisted around, very slowly. 'That was my first godchild Teddy. And you killed him.' She placed a hand over her heart dramatically. 'I'M GONNA FREAKING KILL YOU TEDDY REMUS LUPIN!' Teddy gave a quick nervous laugh, as he jumped up and ran, his hair turning bright green in the process. Xevera had run out of the classroom after him, while Mia cried into James's shoulder, letting him pat her awkwardly on the head.

That was the last time she remembered having any contact with them, and it hadn't been very much at that. 'Vicky!' Victoire cringed at the weird nickname and she turned around to see Natasha, Lucy, Lulu, and a very unhappy Bridget walking towards her. 'I'm cold,' she whined, pulling her Ravenclaw scarf around her. 'Oh shut up,' Lulu rolled her eyes irritated, her Slytherin quality showing quite clearly.

'Anyhow, sorry we were late, we bumped into those freaks in the hall,' Lulu didn't seem sorry at all as she admired her freshly painted nails, fanning them out so everyone could see. 'Well the Twinsies are cool.'

'Of course they are, they're just like their dad and his twin were. AKA the most well known kids in his school.'

'But George Weasley isn't Xevera's dad is she?'

'I don't know.'

'Do you know Lucy?'

Lulu turned away from Bridget to look at the red head who clearly hadn't been paying any attention at all. 'Huh?'

'Oh you're useless.'

'They're not related. At least not by blood anyways.' Natasha added inspecting Lulu's still fanned out nails in detail. 'Mmm.' Lulu was the leader of the group, she made sure of that. 'I guess they're pretty cool.'

'Of course they're cool, everyone knows them.' Lulu turned to glare momentarily at Bridget, giving her the look of a mother who's just been talked back to. 'Didn't you used to be friends with them Vicky?'

'Oh, yeah.'

'Oh my god, you know who's the biggest loser of all of them?'

'Who?' All the girls asked, evidently interested in Bridget's snubbing opinion. 'Mia Niss.' The girls all nodded in agreement, all except Victoire, who still nodded, but wished she could just disappear right on the spot. 'Why do you say that?' All the girls looked at Victoire as if she had just told them that she was actually a goblin. 'Have you _seen_ her?'

'Of course I have,' Victoire snapped, studying her own nails, comparing them to Lulu's in her head. 'She's pretty.'

'Exactly,' Lucy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, even though Victoire privately was completely baffled. 'She thinks they're cooler, and quite honestly is into some of the lamest stuff ever.' Victoire took a mental note of the fact that Natasha never actually said what they liked that was so lame.

'Wait,' Lucy looked up and to the right, 'But like, isn't that like how they're all like? Good looking, but like, I dunno, weird.' You ought to know, Lucy was beyond dense. 'That's how almost the whole school is stupid.'

'Except the one's who aren't good looking,' Lucy replied. 'You mean the ugly ones?' Bridget was becoming more and more frustrated with Lucy's stupidity; she could only wonder why they even kept her around. 'No one in our school is exactly ugly. The gorgeous people are in like, third year and up.' Natasha defended the losers of the school, a rare occasion that didn't go unnoticed by Lulu.

'My mum said that you begin to transform in third year. It's apparently like this ever-continuing process until you're like 18. You always become prettier and prettier, but you make the transformation of child to "adult" in third year.' Victoire wanted to keep her friend from getting her head bitten off by Lulu, but felt instantly dorky at her detailed story of what her mother had told her. 'Yeah…'

'I don't get it.' Everyone turned to look at Lucy until Lulu just sighed, 'There's no point, forget her.'

* * *

'Have I ever mentioned that I hate transfiguration?'

'Yes, about 216 times.' It was the night before Halloween, and everyone was doing their homework last minute. The snow had cleared within days, so even though it was chilly, students didn't have to worry about going outside and not being able to feel their limbs. Mia was writing a transfiguration paper and had only written one foot of parchment.

'You need three feet you know.' Teddy didn't look up from his herbology homework, having already completed his transfiguration, potions, and defense against the dark arts homework. 'I know that,' Mia retaliated, did he always have to state the obvious? She found that while sitting here looking around the common room, that she could be doing much more interesting things right now.

She looked over to where Xevera and Fred were showing off by playing with one of the WWW firework filibusters. That was one of the cool things of being the kid of, or being friends with the kid of George Weasley. You could get random crap from the joke shop whenever you wanted, and they were a heck of a lot of fun.

'Just get it over with. It's not too hard.' Scorpius comforted from a couch right across from her. He was just finishing up writing his history of magic oral report. Mia could've sworn there was about thirty feet of parchment there and dreaded the length of the oral reports that were to be given that Monday. 'That's easy enough for you to say, you're bloody brilliant at transfiguration.'

'And you're bloody brilliant at charms.' Fred and Xevera plopped themselves down on either side of Scorpius with their regard directed at Mia, giving Scorpius a right fright. 'Exactly.' Scorpius said, feeling that they were siding with him. 'But she's not doing charms now is she?' Fred said obnoxiously. Mia looked at Scorpius and smiled smugly. 'You know, you two are the opposite of pleasant.'

'We try,' Xevera grinned, thoroughly invading Scorpius's personal space by slinging an arm around him. 'Are we really that mean?' Fred feigned hurt, but Scorpius bought it. 'Okay I didn't mean that. But why me?'

'Well,' Xevera began, 'you're completely vulnerable to our, might I say, incredible wit.'

'You can be a total wimp.'

'Or for that matter _are_.'

'You can be really thick.'

'Or again, _are_.'

'And you pretty much set yourself up for jokes that we simply can't resist.'

'But we love you anyway,' Xevera finished off at the look on Scorpius's face, hugging him tightly. 'That makes one of us,' Fred joked. 'Excuse me-'

'Alright, alright keep your hair on.'

'How did you guys already finish your homework?' Teddy groaned, running a hand through his brown hair. 'We do our homework on Fridays, unlike you thick-heads.'

'_Friday_?'

'Yeah, get it done get it over with. Isn't that what you said to Mia a few minutes ago,' Fred added complacently. 'Sorry.' The two got up, heading over to watch James play a game of wizard's chess with Kleo.

Mia looked back down at her paper, irked with the whole topic of the essay, when she got an idea. The twins weren't transfiguration geniuses, but they still got pretty good grades.

'Hey Xevera,' Mia called. 'Yeah?'

'Have I ever told you what a fantastic human being-'

'It's on the table.'

'Love you.'

'Hey, wait a sec.' Teddy frowned as Mia leaned from her seat to the small table, picking up Xevera's transfiguration essay. 'You didn't let _me_ borrow your transfiguration when I asked you earlier.' Xevera turned around to smirk at him. 'Did you tell me what a fantastic human being I am?' Teddy opened his mouth, but closed it soon enough. 'That's what I thought.'

* * *

'This is amazing!'

'Yeah, yeah, yeah, get out of my way!' Everyone was making their way down to the Halloween feast, and the new first years were gawking at the showy décor. There were pumpkins larger than life, as smaller ones floated right by the star-studded ceiling. Bats flew around the room, shrieking once in a while when a ghost floated right through them, giving them the unpleasant feeling that they had just been dunked into a tub of icy water. Glossy, orange and black streamers were strewn throughout the hall, curling, sparkling, and giving off an eerie glow.

Xevera, Kleo, Sam, and Fred were being whisked away to Filch's office, as he was under the impression that he just might be able to finally hang children from the ceiling by their ankles. He had just caught them in the act of trying to use a portable swamp on Filch's sleeping chamber, which were know by Hogwarts staff to be virtually impossible to clean up. 'It was supposed to be a "Happy Halloween" surprise!' Xevera had insisted, acting oblivious to the fact that Kleo had just charmed Filch's pillow to flash the words, "You're proof that evolution can go in reverse. Happy Halloween!" Every five seconds.

So now Xeno, Mia, Teddy, Scorpius, and James had had to enter the hall alone, giving Xeno the opportunity to shove a poor little first year out of the way. 'Xeno!' Mia had cried, giving him a scolding look.

'They're annoying. You'd think they'd have better things to do than get in my way.' James looked at him cracking a smile, 'Yeah, maybe they can join the others and have a jolly old time with Filch. I'm sure they'd love to see the chains from those ceilings. I'd like to have a pair of chains hanging from my ceiling.'

'You should be talking, seeing as you've been to Filch's office more times than we can count,' Teddy laughed, shoveling some mashed potatoes onto his plate. 'Yeah and you shouldn't be talking either, all of you have seen Filch's office on a number of occasions.'

'Except for you Mia, because you're a perfect little angel.'

'A perfectly psychotic angel,' Xeno mumbled under his breath, to which Mia playfully slapped him on the shoulder. Everyone tucked into their meal, eating noisily, not long before Sam, Kleo, Fred, and Xevera intercepted. 'Hey there everyone!' Kleo waved happily, sitting himself between Scorpius and James. 'How've you been?'

'Oh just grand, Filch gave us some long boring speech on respect or something,' Sam reached across the table, taking Scorpius's not yet touched plate from him. 'I don't even know who does that anymore.'

'Luckily I had a patented daydream charm on me, so Filch will now be off in a fantastical land where he can actually look in a mirror without crying for the next thirty minutes.' Fred smiled at them all, obviously thinking very highly of himself.

At that second, they all saw a flash of silvery blonde hair, not much unlike Scorpius's, except it was long and silky. It wasn't hard to figure out who's head the sheet of hair belonged to, but the children all pretended that they didn't notice as Lulu, a second year Slytherin, followed close behind the head of hair, staring at James rather openly, winking. He had a silly grin on his face, as all boys usually do when a girl flirts with them, staring off at the girl as she went to go sit at her table. Xevera looked at James, trying to catch his eye to give him a questioning look. She followed his gaze, slowly trying to trace where he might be looking before she spotted Lulu and turned back to her dinner, rolling her eyes. 'Seriously?'

'What?'

'You actually like _her_?

'She winked! At _me_!' James clarified, trying to prove the point of how amazing he thought this really was. 'Yes, we saw that you dozy git.'

'You can do better,' Fred said, staring after Lulu, maybe a tad longer than he should've. Xevera looked at him incredulously, slapping him in the arm, 'Fred!'

'For a second year she's not doing so bad in the arse department.'

'You're such a perv.' Mia rolled her eyes, sending him a look of revulsion. 'Okay, you may have a bit of a good point,' Teddy looked at Lulu, studying her backside and receiving a slap from Xevera as well. 'But- but,' he recovered smiling defensively, 'She's not particularly appetizing to look at either. She's rather ugly actually. I mean lots of girls have a nice arse,' Teddy said, as though what he was saying was completely reasonable. The two girls looked at him skeptically for a moment, then at the rest of the boys.

When desserts came, all the students "oohed" and "ahhed" over the many decadent desserts, the piles of multi flavor ice creams, to chocolate truffles of all different fillings. Everyone sat there tensely for a minute, their eyes darting from one person to the next, making a game plan in their head as to how they should get their desserts before anyone else could. Finally they all leapt forward at once grabbing whatever they could, until they sat back, content with their tasty goods. (All except Scorpius, who had managed to get nothing compared to everyone else, as Fred and Xevera had made sure to shove him down.)

'Gith ith tho goob!' Xeno said through a mouthful of food, earning him some disgusted looks from students within hindsight. 'That's lovely, I wouldn't know though,' Scorpius said with heavy annoyance in his voice, staring at Xeno's plate longingly. Teddy casually reached over and took a large cookie from Scorpius's already empty looking plate taking a large bite in it. 'Oh quit being such a cry baby.'

'Teddy!'

'You have enough see?' Scorpius glared at him as they all looked down at Scorpius's plate, which had a couple strawberries on it, and a half bitten truffle. 'You, shut it, and you,' James switched his gaze from Teddy to Scorpius. 'Have you forgotten that this school is magic, the plates refill themselves.'

'Yeah thickhead!' Scorpius directed his now seemingly permanent frown at Fred, halfway through reaching across to get some mulberry pixie dust ice cream. 'Sorry, couldn't help it. It's kind of a reflex now.'

At that moment, in all the eating and joking, Mia couldn't think of a place she'd rather be. A few years ago she thought she'd have to lead a muggle life, which at the time she'd found to be extremely boring. Now she was going to Hogwarts, learning magic, and doing things she'd only dreamed about. She was best friends with some of the children of the most famous people ever in the wizarding world.

It was then that she looked down the table to see Natasha, Lucy, and Victoire all laughing together. She felt a pang of guilt at the thought that she hadn't even mentioned her conversation with Victoire, and with her best friends at that. 'Hey guys?' There was no response except for James who gave a quick acknowledgement by cocking his head a bit. 'I talked to Victoire the other day.'

Reaction. James started to choke out his food while Fred began to slap him on the back, looking at Victoire in utter amazement. Xeno, Scorpius, Sam, Teddy and Xevera all had small spazz attacks, slamming down on their plates and goblets, causing them to go flying. Simply letting his fork clatter down to his plate, Kleo looked up at Mia, looking completely staggered.

'You, did, what?' James huffed darkly, pulling out a sickly looking red lump, the thing that had obviously been choking him. 'Yeah, ain't that something?'

'What the bloody hell happened?'

'Manky divvy,' Scorpius muttered, staring at the slimy, unidentifiable red strand on James's plate. James met Scorpius's gaze and stared down at the strand as well. Sam looked down at her, 'What did you two talk about?'

'Oh nothing, I just told her that uh, you know, that we wanted her to come back.'

'You did what?' Everyone seemed to finally break their focus away from the thing on James's plate, Xevera's hair had turned a silvery blonde, just like Victoire's and Scorpius's, except it was more silvery, and less white. 'I'm sorry. I must have misheard you. So silly of me but I thought you said "we".'

'Uh, yeah that's kind of how it went down.' Everyone just stared at her. 'Mia,' Kleo seemed to compose himself a bit more, clasping his hands on the table and leaning forward a bit. 'Don't you think it might have been a good idea to mention this to us, you know, before you talked to her?'

'I was just kind of, living in the moment, just like you guys tell me to right?' But everyone just returned blank stares, clearly unable to comprehend the last few minutes. James looked up at her, his face white, 'You think she wants to come back?' If Mia wasn't mistaken, she thought she actually did hear concern in his voice, a true rarity in the soon to be fourteen year old boy.

'Of course she does,' Mia crossed her arms, saying this a lot more confidently than she felt. She knew that all of the children were too stubborn to actually admit to missing Victoire, but James's comment had just confirmed that there were still feelings for Victoire from all of them. At the time it had seemed like a good idea, talking to Victoire. Maybe, Mia had thought, she just might come back, like in the dreams she had. Usually it would start off with her being told she'd just won the lottery, and then Victoire would march up, saying she had been wrong and she wanted to be friends. Even though it was completely unrealistic, she had never gone so far to think that it might never happen.

'I mean, doesn't anyone here miss her… I do.' Everyone shifted around for a full minute uncomfortably, glancing at each other, and often looking down. Slowly, Scorpius raised his hand, just past his cheek, blushing down at the ground. James and Teddy followed sheepishly, who were followed by Fred, Xeno and Sam, all of whom seemed to be totally ignorant to the fact as to how obnoxious they appeared by sticking their hands straight up in the air.

Kleo and Xevera were the only ones left, who were both looking at each other. One could only assume they were communicating with their eyes, and seeing as Xevera didn't communicate the way a normal girl would, Kleo seemed to be able to understand. Kleo was always known for taking a while at making decisions, being the most cautious of the bunch. In the past he had even had it where a simple quiz would take him the whole class.

Him approaching the situation and breaking it down rationally wasn't a surprise. The surprise was Xevera. She never went about a situation and thought about it. Hell, she never even thought about what she said, with Xevera she would just do it, all thinking flying out the window.

'I mean, yeah, I miss her.' Kleo raised his hand with his elbows on the table. Wow, thought Mia, if looks could kill, Kleo would be dead. Xevera was currently staring daggers into Kleo right now, obviously feeling completely betrayed. Mia couldn't blame her, it always sucked to be the person left behind.

The truth was they all missed her, whether they wanted to admit it or not. They had struggled through the past two years without her. They missed her annoying rants about the latest fashions, her constant need to be way over the top about everything. The way she seemed to never shut up, how she'd follow Xevera and the boys out of bed when they were off to do something that didn't benefit the school, which was if Mia hadn't already gone after them. How when Mia had failed to follow them out and had forgotten the password to get back in, and Victoire would come to her rescue. How they would then sit in the common room, waiting for Xevera and the boy's return. It felt weird for Xevera and Mia to go into their dorm and not have the ability to pour out their day to her. There was no more of the bossy, thought to be know-it-all opinion in conversations.

Mia missed her the most though. Unlike Xevera, Fred, James, and Teddy, she didn't get to at least get a glimpse of her at a Weasley-Potter gathering. She didn't have any girls to talk to really. There was Eileen, her dorm mate, but she wasn't close enough to her to just pour out her heart. Xevera was there of course, but she could get awkward when she wanted. Especially when the subject came around to guys. Not like Mia was any better when Xevera brought up the subject to her.

She was still an excellent listener and advice giver, but it just wasn't the same. Mia could remember all of the times Victoire would listen to Mia. As she reminded herself though, Victoire wouldn't be listening for long. The girl had to struggle to keep her mouth shut for less than a minute. But the only things that came out were words of pure comfort.

She had been a big part of Xevera's life as well. Without Vic, she'd probably have nothing. No Fred, George, Angelina, James, Teddy, or any of the Weasley-Potter children. Of course, going to Hogwarts meant she would most likely run into them at some point, but the closeness would've been extremely unlikely. Victoire served the girly side to the two girls. Not like Xevera couldn't be girly, but there was definitely a certain section missing.

After a tense moment of waiting, Xevera looked at Mia, adopting a look of bother. 'If she continues to be a bitch I'll smack her upside the head.' Everyone slowly released a long held breath, almost like when you have the hiccups and you release your breath slowly as to make sure they don't come back.

'So then it's settled,' Xeno clapped his hands and rubbed them together, 'Plan Get-Victoire-back-into-the-group-again is in action.'

'Why not just call it Code Victoire? CV for short.' Xeno glared down at Scorpius as he swung his legs around the bench. 'Way to rain on my parade, Malfoy.'

'Using last names now are we,' Scorpius laughed, getting up to join him, his hands in his pockets. Xeno caught him in a quick headlock, laughing as he released him, not missing the opportunity to shove his head down. 'As fun as this all is,' James cleared his throat, 'How exactly is CV or whatever going to work?'

This was a very good question, as none of them had actually thought that far ahead. All that had actually come to mind was them walking up to Victoire and her cronies, telling Victoire to come with them and the others to sod off. It had all seemed quite wonderful. 'How about we just talk to her?'

'Because going the easy way always ends up being so easy in the end. Honestly, make me at least feel like I know you.' Sam got up with Kleo, staring him down – or up, seeing as Kleo was much taller than Sam. 'Guys, seriously, lets just talk to her.'

'Oh yeah, that'll be a lovely visit. "Hello Victoire! Have you been up to anything mad and bitchy up in Hogwarts lately?"' Xevera's mouth turned into the perfect "O" shape with her eyes widened, a pleading look in them as she looked at Mia, her hands presenting Teddy. 'The child proves a fantastic point!'

'Did we not all just say we wanted to be friends with her again?'

'I don't know about you, but I would find it _extremely_ preferable to _not_ screw myself over.'

'Okay, well I'll figure something out.' James looked down, helping Mia up. 'Just remember,' he said, turning away to walk out of the great hall, 'If you screw up, I'm blaming you.' And with that he left with a snigger, the rest of their friends following close behind.

Mia's shoulders slumped over and she dropped her head onto the table, groaning in frustration, as well as to the throbbing pain she had just caused in her left temple. 'That was stupid,' she muttered, although she wasn't surprised. She giggled for a moment, thinking about a thing she called her fail list. It was a list of all the things she failed, easily told by the rhetorical title. She had first made it when she accidentally pushed Sam out a nearby window, breaking his leg. A bush had broken his fall, although it had unfortunately been filled with poison ivy. That wasn't quickly forgiven, but Victoire had found it hilarious, reminding her at the time of all the other stupid things she had done, thus coming up with the idea of a fail list.

She smiled at the thought of Sam's face when he first came in the door, swollen and livid, with a touch of humor. But her face quickly fell at the thought of Victoire. She slowly lifted her heavy feeling head up, wincing at the practically blinding pain in her head now. There was no sight of Victoire or any of her so called friends, but she did actually spot one of the friends at the Slytherin table, Lulu.

She stared at her, trying to ignore the pain that seemed to slowly be making it's way over to the right temple. She wasn't some skinny twig or anything; she had curves, and lots of them. Her dark hair fell down to her waist, while her silvery eyes looked down at the food she was prodding on her plate, wide set and in slits. It was at that moment that she chose to look up and in Mia's direction. Mia quickly turned away in fear, regretting it as her head pounded, but it wasn't before she caught a quick glance of the look on Lulu's face.

Mia sat there with her back totally straight and her hands neatly folded in her lap, momentarily glancing from side to side. When her breaths began to become shaky, she heard the clicking and clacking of feet right by, and then felt a warm breath in her ear. 'Hey there Niss, just wanted to let you know,' Lulu gave a small laugh. 'If you think that you can get Vicky back, well, you got another thing coming.'

* * *

**Hey everyone! So this chapter dragged on for a while. At first I was like, 'The hilllllllsssss are aliiiiiiive, with the sound of muuuussssssiic! DOO dOO Doo doooooo!" Cuz that's what I sing whenever I type quickly. Then I started to get stuck, and so my writer's block began. I haven't gotten any reviews, which makes me wonder whether or not anyone is reading, but I have come to a decision. I shall continue to write, just because I love it, and it's for myself. But I would love to share the story with everyone on Fanfic, and see if anyone will share their thoughts. I think that's a nice plan. So please, READ AND REVIEW, follow, favorite, but I'm going to keep writing no matter what. :)**

**~ Paule**


	6. In Spite of All the Danger

**Okay, I'll leave a note at the end, but I just have to say, I am SO SO SO SO SORRY! I took forever, but you see, there was this little thing called summer, yeah it kind of got in the way... But people, PLEASE R&R! And fave... and follow... is that too much to ask? :D**

**But I have to say, I DO have some followers! And I love you, I swear, every time I got a follower, I flipped out, I was once checking my phone on a ferris wheel, and it said I got a follower, and I practically fell out of the compartment I was so excited. In fact, when I got down, the dude running the ride was like, are you okay? We saw your compartment rocking at the top, and me and a couple staff members got kind of worried.**

**Now, out of you followers, you're probably wondering, who is the lucky beast that excited me at such good timing? That would be, *drumroll***

**AliceMarieJamesPotter**

**! Congrats! You're cool! Thank you though, to a couple of the other followers, chocolate fish, and Jazzmatazz30**

**So please, R&R, tell everyone you know and random fanfic'ers!**

* * *

'Victoire!'

'Victoire!'

'Here, let me handle this.' Lulu Harley picked up a pillow and wacked Victoire Weasley over the head with it, proving successful as Victoire lifted her head with a groan. 'What was that for?'

'That was for you to get the fuck up.' Bridget came over and yanked Victoire out of bed, pulling her towards the dresser. 'We need to have a meeting.'

'A meeting?'

'Alright, a get-together.'

'A get-together?'

'Okay we're here to have fun, feel better?'

'Not really.' Victoire glowered across the room at Lulu, trying to keep her silvery hair out of her face. 'Ooh, let me!' Lucy shoved Bridget over from Victoire's dresser, designating herself as Victoire's personal stylist. 'Look, I know this is pretty rich coming from the person who got up the earliest,' Natasha said, 'but why are we here exactly?'

'Because, we have an issue.'

'An issue?'

'An issue.'

'How big?'

'Huge.' Natasha looked up from her pretzel style position at Lulu, looking completely disgruntled. Her hair was askew from its high ponytail, as she had just tried to wipe off some excessive eyeliner. It wasn't the most glamorous look per say. 'What's the problem?'

Lulu snorted, letting her eyes quickly flit over to the outfit Lucy had just chosen for Victoire. 'New shoes,' she snapped, and Lucy heeded to Lulu's command, as always, thought Victoire. 'Here, give her to me.' Bridget quickly took Victoire to do her makeup before Lulu continued.

'You know James Potter and his little group of freaks?' Everyone nodded, Victoire and Bridget just barely, since Bridget now had ahold of Victoire's face as she applied some subtle makeup. 'Well they want Victoire back.'

'What?' There was a large gasp from the room, one faked from Victoire. Bridget nearly stabbed Victoire in the eye, but now had the eyeliner pencil hovering just above, her face just inches from Victoire's. 'Vicky is this true? Did you know this?'

'No.' She said this a little too quickly, but no one seemed to notice. 'That's what I thought.' Lulu got up from Victoire's bed and walked over to the mirror to admire herself, running a hand through her hair and turning her head at a slight angle. 'Now we just have to teach them a lesson.'

'Ooh! I love teaching lessons! Do tell.'

'Right, well they think they're so worthy, so we'll just show what they're ever so worthy of.' Victoire gulped as she inspected Lucy and Bridget's good work in the mirror from behind Lulu. She never liked to hear that, it was something Lulu said a lot, and the people who were on the receiving of their dirty tricks usually regret whatever it was they had done. As much as she hated to admit it, she didn't want the same fate for her friends – I mean colleagues, Victoire thought.

'Are you sure it's such a good idea? I-I mean,' Lucy stumbled, cowering under the look Lulu was giving her, 'James and his frie- I mean freaks. They're really popular and you know,' Lucy twirled her hair, spacing out. '"You know," what?' Natasha finished. 'Oh yeah! It might make us look bad.' Despite how thick Lucy was, and how she had just exemplified this, she made a pretty good point. Yet Lulu refused to think that she could, for once, actually be wrong.

'No, no! C'mon girls! Let's show them that they really aren't as cool as they think they are.' She paused, her shaky voice betraying her, 'It's time to quit daydreaming.'

* * *

It was nice, just sitting here by the lake. A bit chilly, but nice. James looked up at Teddy and Xeno who were on the other side of the lake. They didn't notice him as they inspected the new broom Mr. and Mrs. Thomas had just sent Xeno, the Cleansweep 30X. It wasn't hard to spot them, with Xeno running around, seeming to be having a spastic fit, and with Teddy's electric blue hair.

He laughed in spite of himself at his friend's ridiculous show, absentmindedly pulling some grass. As he was going to reach for some more grass though, his hand latched onto an already crumpled envelope. He sighed and lifted up the letter, leaning back against a tree. The edges were torn in several places, and it was already pretty soft from all of the times it had been manhandled.

James had sent a howler to his parents. Yep, _he_ sent the howler. He was scared his parents had sent one in reply. You'd think he'd be able to tell immediately if it was a howler or not, since the envelope should've been red, and it should've blown up by this point. But his mum and dad had learned how to send a disguised howler. So he didn't know WHAT was coming.

Now that he thought about it, sending a howler probably wasn't one of his brightest ideas, but he needed to get the point across to his parents. He didn't exactly know what that point was, but he knew that the problem was important.

At the last Weasley-Potter gathering, James had been stuck to talk with Aunt Muriel. (How that woman was still bustling about James would never know.)

* * *

**Flashback**

'Come here boy, sit down.'

'Yes Aunt Muriel.'

'Now which one are you?' She grabbed James's face, not seeming to care that he was wriggling under her tight grip. 'It's James Aunt Muriel. Remember? Harry and Ginny's son? Their first.'

'Ah yes.' She let go, saying this thoughtfully. 'How many detentions have you had in your first year young man?'

'Err,' James rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. In truth, he didn't know, he just knew it was a lot. 'A lot?'

'Hah, 53, your mum told me. Tsk, tsk.' She wagged a finger, but did it in the wrong direction, nearly falling off her chair. James quickly grabbed her and, with great effort, sat her upright and towards him. She frowned momentarily before saying, 'Ah there we go. Now where was I? Oh yes. 54-'

'53.'

'Oh right, thank you. 53 detentions! In my day, if you had 53 detentions, your parents wouldn't let you come home.' James nodded, not actually sure if she could see this, but did it just in case. He didn't say anything, knowing from plenty of rants by Uncle Ron that Aunt Muriel could be a smidge over dramatic.

'Do you do well in your classes?'

'Yeah, I do pretty well.'

'Pretty well?' She scoffed. 'For Merlin's sake my dear boy, you're the son of Harry Potter! The boy who lived, the chosen one, the defeater of the dark lord! You should be doing better than "pretty well"!

'When your father was your age, he'd defeated the dark lord! Twice!' She nearly fell off her chair again, and James reluctantly helped her up once more, very much liking the thought of her falling smack on her face.

'Look at Albus and Lily! Now those are two children to be proud of! Lily, sweet Lily, is such a charming child! And she's beautiful too! Then there's Albus, let's not forget him! The boy who visits _me_ at _least_ once a month!' James made quick to turn his laugh into a cough, as to not upset Aunt Muriel. Albus hated Aunt Muriel as much as James did; he was just a suck up. Aunt Muriel had piles of cash, and Albus knew if he could make himself the favorite, he'd get a nice large cut.

'I know a lost cause when I see one. I guess every family has to have the one child who's a disappointment.' James kept his mouth set in a firm line, feeling the strong need to get up and run. 'What's going on over here?' Ginny came over, seeing James's troubled face. 'Oh, Ginny, lovely to see you! Johnny and I-'

'James.'

'Oh right, James and I were just having a small chat,' and she went on to tell Ginny everything she had said to James, and exactly what she thought about him. When she was done, Ginny had a pensive expression, letting her eyes quickly flick over to James. 'Yes,' she mused. 'Well, I ought to go.' James stared at her, stunned as she walked away. His own mother hadn't defended him? Against _that_? Did she actually agree?

**Flashback**

* * *

Later that night, James had heard Ginny and Harry talking in the living room, but he'd left before they could properly dive into the topic. From what he'd heard, it didn't sound like they'd disagreed.

He turned just in time to see Scorpius stumbling down the grass towards him, so he quickly stuffed the letter in his robes. 'Hey.' Scorpius panted, sitting himself diagonally from James, facing towards him. His hair was falling in his face a bit, but he quickly swept it out of the way. 'What's up?'

'I should probably be asking you the same thing.'

'Yeah well,' Scorpius shrugged his shoulders in response to James's smirk. 'Didn't have anything to do. Mia went off with Eileen, to do god knows what. Uh.' He bopped his head backwards, 'Just saw Teddy and Xeno run into the castle with Xeno's new Cleansweep 30X.'

'No doubt to show it off to every single girl they can find,' James joked. 'Well, let's face it; I think our dorm is the best-looking dorm in our year. Or at least our house's year.'

'Nah, definitely our year, period.' James replied with a cocky grin, knowing fully well Scorpius wasn't kidding. 'Where's everyone else?'

'Well I'm pretty sure Kleo and Sam are off scheming how to get some girl. Wouldn't tell me who it was, besides the fact that it's either a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw. Fred's off with Xevera, scheming about how best to piss off Filch.' At James's questioning look Scorpius explained, 'He gave them detention last week, they may get detention all the time, but as Fred put it, when someone gives you a gift, you have to send back a thank you.'

'Ah of course, one of their many genius mottos.'

'Yep.' Scorpius nodded, his nods becoming longer and slower as the moment turned awkward. James clicked his tongue. 'Oh,' Scorpius looked down at the ground, right by James. 'What's that?' James looked down to see part of the envelope sticking out. 'That? It's nothing.' He looked back up to see Scorpius smirking, his dark eyebrows raised. 'Nothing? If it's so nugatory, what's the big deal? Why was I,' he laid a hand on his chest, his hand curling upwards towards the palm. 'One of your best friends, not notified?' James glared in response, knowing exactly what Scorpius was doing. Weasel his way in, by making James look as dumb as a doornail.

Scorpius simply smiled, obnoxiously, with all of his teeth showing. It was so wide, his head had tilted back slightly, and his eyes were squinted shut. 'It's from my parents,' he muttered, tossing the letter at Scorpius. It hit him square between the eyes and Scorpius gave a small laugh as James smiled, 'Git,' sitting up and crossing his legs.

'About?' Scorpius asked, the smile still in his voice. 'Sent them a howler.' Scorpius stopped inspecting the letter to look up at James. 'No.' Scorpius said disbelievingly, although there could be some awe detected in there. 'You didn't.'

'Yeah, I did, and now I'm probably gonna get my ars kicked.'

'Well let's think of some happier things shall we? Like, how big of an idiot Sam and Kleo are making of themselves right now, or how Xevera and Fred are making Filch's life a living hell!' Scorpius said with a grin, handing the letter back to James so he could stow it in his pocket. He then got off the ground gingerly, brushing all the grass off his clothes. 'Well when you put it that way,' James said, getting up himself. The two grinned at each other and began making their way up to the castle, only to bump into a full head of curly, silvery, shoulder-length hair.

'Xevera?' The Metamorphmagus turned around, a miffed expression playing on her facial features, which quickly turned into a smile of relief. 'Hey I was just looking for you guys!'

'What happened to you?' Scorpius indicated her hair, identifying it as the color her hair tended to change when she was annoyed; if she became completely pissed it would go black. 'Wanna know?' She fumed, but without any consent from the two boys, she took them by the hands and roughly dragged them into the main doors, and up the first floor corridor.

There were two very pretty fourth year girls, both Ravenclaw, giggling and twirling their hair, nodding occasionally. The source of entertainment that the two girls seemed to find so charming was Fred, Sam, and Kleo. Sam seemed to be performing some stuff with Fred, products from WWW, while Kleo made continuous witty comments. 'Unbelievable,' Xevera huffed, not taking her eyes off of the scene. 'The girl with the dark straight hair on the left, the green eyed one, that's Blair Regus, she's the top of their potions class,' she seemed to particularly grumble that last part. 'Then the one on the right, also with the straight dark hair, but the chocolate eyes, is Ellie Mindle. I don't know what makes her so brainy, but I know she's a chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.'

I know they're girls and stuff, but Fred told me to go away!' James and Scorpius whipped around to her, shock written all over their faces. 'No!' James exclaimed, exchanging a look with Scorpius. 'Yes! He said I had to leave; he didn't need me to do the "funny stuff"! He shouldn't be talking, I make most of our funny stuff!'

This was really weird; Fred and Xevera were barely ever apart. Xevera went so far as to sometimes sneak into class with Fred, and then come back to her own class. James was amazed by her grades, considering. It quickly occurred though, why Xevera seemed to have more of a distinct hatred towards the girl on the left, Blair Regus. Fred seemed to really have his eyes on her, and the other way round. From what he'd heard about Blair, she was not only top of Potions, but of Defense Against the Dark Arts, the two classes Xevera seemed to be the top of.

Then there was the fact that Fred was completely ignoring Xevera, and considering how much attention her parents seemed to give to her, this couldn't be helping, not that she ever seemed to care. James took a look at Xevera and assumed she must really wanna kick Fred's ars. True, she didn't hate anyone, didn't mean that'd stop her from punching Fred into another century.

She probably knew this day would come, but one would never think Fred would go so far as to blank her. 'Ignore it,' Scorpius nudged her in the ribcage, 'Let them have their fun. We can go do something else. How about it. James?'

James turned to look at the two fourth years, whispering to each other and giggling. 'Yeah, let's get out of here.'

* * *

'Are you sure there isn't one more copy left?'

'For the last time, I'm positive, now would you please be quiet, and if you're not going to use your time wisely in here, leave.'

'B-but-',

'I'm warning you.'

'Ugh, fine.' Without a copy of "A History of Magic" in hand, Mia walked dejectedly back to her table, to find a smirking Xeno and Teddy. Before either of them could say anything she slumped down with a snarky,

'Oh shut up.'

'Why are you so desperate to get your hands on it anyways?'

'Looking for a good hex?' Teddy suggested. 'Or perhaps a love potion,' Xeno said, wiggling his eyebrows. 'Oh poor Mia, so desperate in the department of love.'

'Oh please, because you guys are doing so much better, and besides, you'd have to get a potions book to look up potions, and a charms book for hexes.'

'Oh well so-rry.'

'But that still doesn't answer the question as to why you're so desperate for that book.'

'Eileen.'

'Huh?'

While Mia wasn't nearly as close with her as she was with Xevera, Mia had become good friends with Eileen over the past couple of years, seeing as they had all their classes together, along with Xeno, so they spent quite a bit of time together. That was unless they had class with the Slytherins, in which case Xeno would you usually go tag along with James and Teddy, while Mia would go off with Xevera and her friend Tamar. She felt bad sometimes, aware that she sometimes would be leaving Eileen on her own. Not that she had never invited her to join them, Eileen never seemed very interested. It had nothing to do with Xevera; those two had hung out just the two of them on multiple occasions. The same went for her and Tamar. Mia couldn't figure out what was going on with her, so she had learned to leave it be at this point.

'Eileen, you know her; she's a study dork. It's just work, work, work with her.' Mia muttered this as she threw her hair over her shoulder, lying her head down on the table. His hair turning a violent orange, Teddy shouted as quietly as possible, seeing Madame Pince's face. 'Bloody hell, but there's no homework!'

'Yeah well, you know her, wanting to brush up on her knowledge. She asked if I could see if they had any copies, but clearly they don't.' She stopped the sentence abruptly, as she got up and bumped into someone. 'Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!'

'Oh no really I'm so-' She looked up to see a pair of familiar blue eyes and silvery hair. They froze a minute, Victoire standing there, slightly bent over, and Mia halfway towards picking up Victoire's books.

Quickly, Victoire's brows knit together and she whipped up the books, walking away so quickly that she practically skipped from the library. Mia stood there still frozen, Teddy and Xeno looking down at her, not quite sure what to say or do.

Xeno, being the more sensitive of the two began, 'Mia are you-'

'Fine.' Mia replied curtly, picking up her bag. 'I'm going back to the common room.' She turned, ready to go, but seemed to decide that she needed to be polite, and turned her head a little to ask, 'Are you two coming?'

'Uh, no, you go ahead.'

'Fine,' she was actually secretly happy at the thought of being alone.

* * *

Teddy's great horned owl, Pascale, and James's Northern saw-whet owl, Finnian, both had something in common, they loved their owners. They took great pride in their jobs, they were very important. They knew, that whenever their owners gave them something, it was vital that they deliver it as quickly as they could. And they knew their owners appreciated it, since whenever they got back, they were rewarded for their good, hard work.

However, they had something else in common, they loved being rewarded and given treats, no matter who it was from. What made them different you ask? Pascale was much brighter than Finnian, making Finnian a little easier to sway. So when two girls came into the owlery, and they called Pascale and Finnian over, only Pascale came with caution.

The girls had stroked them, giving them little treats, and words of kindness, and identified themselves as Lulu Harley, and Aliah Jighoff, both in Slytherin house. Despite the fact that the girl, Lulu, said that she only brought Aliah because she shared a dormitory with her, and that she would've in fact brought a better friend instead, the other didn't seem to mind. The two owls had never had this before, sure Teddy and James did this, but never anyone else. Now one has to remember, these were owls, not people, so even though Pascale was a very bright owl, she still wasn't exactly a genius. The owls never knew they were so famous, that they were so appreciated. So as the meeting went on, with every treat their chests puffed out a bit more, and with every comment, the girls became more and more trustworthy to them.

The girls then began to talk again, and as I said before, they're owls, so they could only get so much of the conversation, but both of them were able to pick up on the same thing. Any mail that they were supposed to deliver for now on, even to their owners, should be given to them instead. Since neither could really respond, all they could do was look at the girls and blink, until a scream came from Alliah. She pushed her partially, badly bleached hair out of her face and turned beat red, as Pascale flew as quickly as she could to the other end of the owlery.

* * *

From that day forth, Finnian delivered all mail to and from James to Lulu, and whenever Pascale caught so much as a glimpse of Gretchen or Lulu, she flew away as far, and quickly as she could.

* * *

**Not as proud as this chapter, but I needed to establish some things, so yay.**

**~ Paule**


	7. Every Little Thing

**Hey guys! I am SO sorry I have taken so long. I'm currently writing this and another story, and also I had SO much work for school. Like actually you can't even begin to imagine, but summer started and I spent the month working my butt off on this, and it paid off. 11,945 words. So I gave you all a very nice long chapter. Please tell me what you think. I'm also super excited for Leakycon! Very fun stuff! **

**Anywho, enjoy!**

**~ Paule**

* * *

'Hear ye, hear ye! Your best canary creams are now on a holiday sale for three galleons, instead of four! We also have new Christmas mint patties!'

'Change your friends different colors with this little holiday sweet! Guaranteed to only be noticed by others, and not the victim!' Fred and Xevera currently had a crowd surrounding them in Gryffindor common room, as they sold products George had just sent them, eager to see how well his newest Christmas product would do.

The Christmas mint patties worked, and Mia was the first to know, since she was now sitting in the common room, glowering at the two, crimson and gold with shining stars all over her. It was extremely embarassing, so she made sure that when people passed she would turn to look into the fire. 'I tell you, if I was a prefect.'

'But you're not,' said James obnoxiously, now sitting across from her. 'You shut up.'

'Mia, is that you?'

'Scorpius, I swear to god.'

'Hey, Mia, you look so different! What is it though? Oh, it must be the hair.'

'Teddy, don't start with me.'

'Aww Mia, don't get upset. Hey, wait! Guys, look, she just sprouted a new star!'

'Xeno, if I wasn't so damn short…'

'Uh, Mia? Would you mind if I took a picture of you? Might fascinate me mum.'

'Aw, Sam, no, don't sink down to their level.' Since the twins had given her another sweet so that she could in fact see her skin, she was horrified to see that she had in fact fashioned a new star on her hand. Mia looked up at the boys, finally taking notice in them – she had been too busy glowering at Xevera and Fred without being seen.

Teddy looked absolutely bored, it seemed he had only ever made a comment to get something out of being down here. James had a wicked smile on his face, along with Xeno and Scor. Sam actually had a camera, and Mia quickly realized he had been serious, _wow, he really is an idiot_, thought Mia. If she hadn't looked up, she wouldn't have noticed Kleo, reading some sort of book, looking even more bored than Teddy, if that was possible.

Mia couldn't have been more worried though, she was supposed to be on the train for the holidays tomorrow, and would be going to the Weasley's for Chirstmas this year. Her parents didn't mind, since the family was Jewish, along with Xevera and Sam's, so none of their parents cared. She was pretty sure that Kleo wasn't going, due to the fact that both of his parents were muggle priests, meaning that the holidays were extremely important. She knew Xeno would be going as well, since his mother felt he would, "Be safer from the nargels at this time of year." No one seemed to know what the devil she was going on about, including Xeno. Of course Teddy, James, and Fred would be going since it was their family.

However, despite the fact that she would have multiple friends there, Mia had multiple reasons to be worried. Firstly, her current complexion wasn't exactly flattering, and she didn't want to make a bad impression. She would be meeting George and Angelina for the first time, Fred's, (and one coud say Xevera's,) parents. She would also be meeting Mr. and . She could only imagine what their reactions would be, and Xevera and Fred seemed to have no idea whatsoever as to when the affects would wear off.

Then there was the fact that Victoire was a Weasley, meaning she would be there. It didn't stop there though, she was bringing a couple of her cronies as well, Lulu, and Bridget. The group had discovered this a few days ago, when Victoire had shockingly approached them. At first they had been prepared for an apology of some sort, but they had quickly learned that this was not the case. The Weasleys had sent a letter to Victoire, (they had deemed her the most trustworthy,) asking who they were all inviting.

The actual conversation was extremely awkward, consisting of Victoire thrusting the letter at James and saying, 'Grandmum wants to know who's coming. Just give it to me when you're done.'

Mia could only imagine what would go down this year at Christmas. The adults had no idea what was going on with all of them. Meaning that they still thought Victoire and the rest of them were as close as ever. For instance, last summer Xevera, Fred, Teddy, James, and Victoire were put together by their parents, being told to "have fun". They would usually be put together at big dinners, dropped off at muggle malls, or at general family gatherings. They all told Mia that usually, she'd just sit there and mope, give dirty looks, or wander off.

These were times when Mia was happy her parents wouldn't let her go off to Weasley/Potter things. 'Stop, stop, NO!' Mia looked up right in time to see a rather bossy looking girl standing right by Mia, arms crossed, right in front of a rather annoyed looking Fred. Xevera stood right behind him, looking confused at Fred's sudden lack of movement.

'Oh get out of the way Erika.'

'No, I'm not just going to stand here and let you get away with a crime.'

Fred looked at her like she'd lost her mind and she smirked and said, 'No need to look at me like that Fred Weasley, you selling stuff to people, encouraging them to mess with others, is a crime.'

'Bollucks.' Fred spat, his bright red ears contrasting with his auburn hair. 'It's how my family makes a bloody living, and we're doing quite fine, thank you. So until Azkaban comes to tell us happiness is a crime, I would like to not hear your opinion.' And with that he pushed her aside, and walked right up to everyone and sat down. Erika let out a small huff and marched up the stairs, her thick chestnut hair following her.

'Who in Merlin's name was that?' asked Teddy. Fred must of spaced out, because he shook his head stupidly and said, 'Wha?'

'He asked who that was, twit!' Fred gave Xevera a dangerous look, rubbing the back of his head, 'What is it with you people hitting me? That's Erika Rendou, she's in my year, and I hate her.'

'Hate's a strong word.'

'Alright fine, I really don't like her. She's bossy, annoying, and doesn't like to have any fun.'

'So a bit like Aunt Hermione?'

'Hey don't talk that way about my mum!'

A little girl with big brown eyes and curly, fiery red hair walked over, followed by a boy, also with fiery red hair, but green eyes and rectangular glasses. 'Rose would you leave it?'

'No! They're bad mouthing mum!'

'But Rose-'

'Albus, no!' None of them had talked to Albus or Rose much in their time at Hogwarts, mostly because every time they came within hindsight, James would shoo them away.

'Rose, listen to Albus and go away.'

'Hey!'

'Ha!'

'Albus, go with her.'

'HEY!'

'Oh come on,' Mia gave James a nudge, and turned back to Albus, a smile stretched across her face, 'How would you like to sit with us on the train back home with us tomorrow? I'll save a seat by me so you don't have to face your scary brother!

'Ew, no, you're weird looking,' Albus looked her up and down with disgust, while Mia just sat there, appalled. Stifling laughter, Xevera said, 'Hey Albus, if you want, you can sit with us tomorrow, we'll save you a seat, but we'll make sure it isn't by your brother, or the gross looking girl.' Mia had most likely intended to look threatening when she glared at Xevera, but when another gold star appeared between her two eyes, Xevera only laughed harder.

Xevera turned back to Albus, trying to regain composure, 'So, be there or be square?'

'Definitely. Come on Rose, let's go.' And with that he turned on his heel, pushing up his glasses.

'Hey guys?' Everyone turned in surprise to look at Kleo, as he hadn't talked the entire evening. 'I think we need to get to bed.'

'Says who?' Sam shot back, 'Says the empty common room.' Everyone looked around to see Kleo was right, they were the only ones in there, so with some grumbling, the group split.

* * *

James, Teddy, Xevera, and Scorpius stepped out of the portrait hole, Scor splitting from the other three. 'Where were Tamar and Dominique this evening?' Teddy nudged Xevera as she walked between the two boys, wearing black jeans and a black hoodie, unlike James and Teddy who were still in their robes. 'Yeah, wouldn't you usually ask them to tag along?' Xevera shrugged, looking at James, 'They have their own group of friends. It's sort of like… Like how you two don't always hang out with Lanz, Alex, and Jamie.'

Lanz Galiena, Alex Nobis, and Jamie Voltain were the other three boys that James and Teddy roomed with. Teddy raised his eyebrows as they all kept staring forward, making their way down a staircase, as it started to move. 'I see.'

'Great, just what we need. The tortoise.' The tortoise was the staircase they were currently on, it was the slowest moving staircase in the school, and could take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes on average. It was once said that its record was 30 minutes, but nobody could be too sure how reliable that was.

'Excited for Valentine's Day?'

'I guess.'

'What happens here on Valentine's Day? I keep hearing stuff about it, but I don't know anything definitive besides there's post on that day, which is just about everyday.'

'Oh right, of course you wouldn't know about it, you're muggle born.' The staircase finally stopped, and the three stepped off, continuing on their way. Teddy ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up a bit as he explained the holiday. 'Every year starting when we come back from winter holiday, there are little pieces of paper you'll find in your dormitory. On it, it asks whether you'd like to send anything to anyone on Valentine's Day. They ask whom, I've heard they give you five slots. Each one has three check boxes; one for flowers, one for chocolates, and one for other, which you have to fill in. They disappear a week usually before Valentine's Day, and on the morning of Valentine's at the foot of your bed there's the pile of stuff you've received. Cards, chocolates, flowers, you name it.'

'Course there's always that sad moment when you don't get anything, but you have to expect that. It's a bit mean actually, but I guess it's reality. I've never known anyone to get _nothing_. It starts this year, third year, since they don't want to get any of the younger ones into the swing of it.'

'Oh well that sounds fabulous,' Xevera said with heavy sarcasm. 'I can see you love Valentine's Day,' Teddy laughed, pushing into her side a bit. She smirked, hitting him in the arm, 'I'm just not into the whole love gushy thing.'

'I thought girls were supposed to be into all of that. I mean, we're certainly not, so it's your job, isn't it?'

'Merlin no, I hate it! All those dumb sayings about love, those lovey dovey couples, I hate it all. You're not in the midst of it all. All those girls talking about who they like, who's hot, whom they hope kisses them on Valentine's Day… It's revolting I promise you.'

'That sounds great! Being able to know what they do and don't like…'

'Maybe for you, but it's of no use to me, please, switch places for a day, be my guest.' The three continued to laugh as they made their way into the dungeons, pausing at the great, mossy stone wall. Regaining his breath from laughing, James said, 'Malfoy,' and the great wall rose. He made a mental note to himself to tell Scorpius that his name was the new password. Walking into the Slytherin common room, James, Xevera, and Teddy spotted Lanz and Jamie sitting on one of the leather couches, and made their way over. Jamie's back was to them, so Lanz noticed them first, waving them with a lazy two fingers, holding an arm out to Xevera. Xevera laughed and went to crash next to him, swinging her feet up onto the table in front of her.

'How was time with your Gryffindor chums?' Lanz still didn't approve of stepping into the boundaries of other common rooms, even though everyone did it. He didn't have anything against any of the actual people; he was just a competitive bastard. 'Fine.' James gave a small smile as he ran a hand over his eyes, letting out a sigh.

'Why don't they ever come over into our side of the pond.'

'Because they feel it's not homey enough.'

'That's stupid…' But Teddy couldn't have been more on the mark. The Slytherin common room had a high ceiling that was completely stone, except for large sections on the ceiling and the walls that were glass, which let them look into the lake that they were under, which the gave common room an eerie green glow. There was a fireplace, and many black leather couches and grand chairs. It was very relaxed, but not quirky like the Gryffindor common room, however it felt just as warm and homey to the Slytherins.

'Where's Alex?' 'He went to crash earlier than the rest of us.' 'Oh did you finally come out of your little hole?' Lanz tried to look all innocent as Jamie shot him a dark look. Jamie was the darkest out of the group, and yet was also one of the school's heartthrobs. Whether it was his lean frame, brown mussed up hair, square jaw, Australian instead of English accent, or his deep-set brown eyes, he managed to steal away the heart of every girl in Hogwarts. 'Never mind, don't mind me.'

'So you're off into the country tomorrow?'

'Basically.'

'You doing anything for Christmas Jamie?' Jamie looked up, 'Nah, gonna stay back here. Mum and dad are off in the south of France to visit my brother.' There was a general vocal understanding, which was abruptly interrupted by Alex banging his way down the stairs, comically straightening himself up when he had reached them. 'Someone's in a chipper mood,' James mused at Alex's attire, half of it having gone completely askew.

'You bloody bet I am.'

'What's the occasion?'

'Victoire bleeding Weasley, that's the occasion.'

'Oh?' It was as if everyone's ears had physically perked up at the mention of Victoire's name. Victoire used to slip in here all the time with Xevera, and after that there had been a short period in which her name would start a very long, colorfully worded tangent by Xevera. Alex was simply a stupid insensitive bastard. 'What is it?' Teddy smirked, looking up the boy whose bed was right next to his.

'Victoire's apparently sending me a valentine!'

'Oh lucky you.' Teddy smiled as he looked over at Xevera who was smiling at Alex rather coldly. He didn't miss the fact that Lanz was watching Xevera's every move. Lanz and Xevera had become close over the past year, and became very much like brother and sister. It seemed a lot of people felt that sort of sisterly connection with her. 'So where's your little girlfriend now?' Alex looked over at Xevera, rolling his eyes. 'Just because there's someone who doesn't actually like you.'

'Please.'

'Newsflash, there are a lot of people who don't like you.' Xevera actually cracked a smile, and all the Slytherins began to laugh. Alex was very lost in all of this and Xevera regained her composure enough to say, 'Okay, let's review, shall we? First of all, that's pretty rich coming from the guy who is hated by just about every teacher and every Hufflepuff. Secondly, most of the people who don't like me are the people who have brought threats to one of you goofballs and I've had to deal with.'

'Nu-uh!'

'Okay then I guess I just won't keep Walter Keat off your back.' At this Alex's eyes widened and he began to shake his head slowly. 'You wouldn't.'

'Wanna make a bet on that?' Walter Keat was a very large, very threatening Ravenclaw in sixth year. At the beginning of the year, Alex felt it his duty to make a move on almost every single girl at the Gryffindor Ravenclaw Quidditch match. There was one very cute Gryffindor who Alex decided to wiggle his eyebrows at and make suggestive faces at.

Unfortunately for Alex, Walter Keat was sitting right behind Alex and crew. Even more unfortunately, the very cute Gryffindor was very taken. By Walter Keat. It was very hard to believe that Keat had anything in his head besides fluff and odd bits and pieces, but he was in Ravenclaw so clearly there had to be something up there.

He didn't really help his case though since Xevera only had to use a simple jelly leg curse to keep him from crushing Alex's skull to bits. Now every time Walter was within hindsight of Alex, or Alex managed to screw something up with him, Xevera simply raised her wand and gave the do-you-really-wanna-go-there look.

Back to the present, Alex was harnessing a look of defeat. 'I'm gonna go up to bed.'

'That's what I thought. As it turns out though, I must leave the rest of you boys utterly bored, as I'm going to turn in myself.'

'Oh, what will we ever do without you,' James pined. Xevera smiled, 'I know, you must try to survive.'

* * *

'I'm, SO BORED!'

'Speak for yourself.' Mia was currently pressed up against the door side of a compartment, reading a book, while on the other side of the bench, James was pressed up against the window side. In between them were Xeno and Teddy's legs, as Teddy went into detail as to how bored he was. 'How about entertaining yourself?'

'Noooooo.'

'Why don't you read a good book? You love reading, and I have some more with me.'

'Meh. I don't feel like reading.'

'Then don't complain.' There was some silence as Mia continued reading her book in peace. Initially, they had all been whining, and Mia, in order to get them be quiet for as long as she could, had told them that whoever could stay quiet for the longest, would get to listen to her ipod. None of them knew what an ipod was, but after explaining it to them, they were all desperate.

She knew that if they really wanted it, they would stay quiet, so she depended on this to keep them quiet for the rest of the journey, which was probably extremely stupid. Teddy had broken the silence first, surprise surprise. Right after he started complaining about how it was going on for too long, Xeno started up as well.

Mia was surprised to say the least that James had won, but when she really thought about it, she realized she would feel the same way if any of them won. So James took the headphones, and after much confusion, began to work the device. He was extremely frightened at first, and had to be calmed down. But after awhile, he got used to it, meaning Mia had to suffer all through the non-stop ranting and complaining. 'You know, I'm bored too.'

'Congratulations.'

'It's not very nice.'

'I'm sure.' Again, there was silence. 'Can you just talk to us, conversation might be nice.'

'Maybe in a minute okay? My books becoming really intense.'

'Yeah, well my life's not, and I'm not going to live forever.' But with a look, he shut up. It seemed though, that fate was listening that day, because Xevera came bustling in, and plopped herself next to Teddy, draping her legs across Teddy and Xeno's laps. 'EW oh my god, it's Teddy!'

'Gross it's Xevera.' It had seemed over the past year, that the two of them had grown to hate each other. Not for any reason, for all it was worth, they woke up one morning, simply hating each other. It was hard to tell how far this extended though, since they still joked, and besides, here they were now, legs and all. 'Oh get a room.'

'Xeno?'

'Yes?'

'Keep in mind where my foot is currently positioned.' Xevera now turned to Mia, a satisfied smirk etched across her face. 'And how are you?'

'Simply fabulous, darling.'

'Splendid,' Xevera now took the time to notice James listening to the ipod, who didn't seem to notice Xevera's entrance whatsoever, as dramatic as it was. 'What-'

'Don't ask.' Clearly not satisfied, she called out, 'James.' Nothing. 'James!' Still no response, besides his mouthing the lyrics to a song. 'JAMES!'

'Blimey! What happened?' James nearly jumped out of his seat, his eyes popping out of their sockets. 'What happened?' He was greeted by silence, and noticed Xevera. She smiled, 'Hi.'

'Bloody hell Xevera,' James started making an attempt at wrapping the headphones around the ipod like he had seen Xevera and Mia do so many times, 'you had me worried.'

'GOD XEVERA!'

'OHMYGOD TEDDY YOU'RE SUCH A TAG ALONG.'

'Would you two stick a sock in it?'' The two looked at each other, one with lime green, waist length curly hair pulled into a high pony tail, and the other in its usual hairstyle, all combed forward, so it came to a rounded point, stooping just above the eyes, but electric blue. They turned back to Mia and said in unison, 'No.'

'Could you try?'

'No.' She sighed in frustration, placing her book into her bag, perhaps a little more roughly than she should have. 'Temper, temper.'

'Oh shut up.'

'Where were you actually?' James asked in curiosity, placing his feet in the empty space next to Xeno. Xevera shrugged, playing with the long tail of hair potruding from the back of her head. 'Fred and Sam.'

'What about Kleo?'

'I don't know.' She didn't seem to care whatsoever, a little strange in James's opinion. 'We were just talking about god knows, and then Lily Regus and some other girls came in,' she shrugged nonchalontly, 'so I left.' That explained it. 'But seriously, where's Kleo.'

'I seriously have no idea. What about Scorpius?' Everyone suddenly stopped and looked around, realizing the absence of a certain blonde boy. 'Scorpius?' Xeno whispered. 'As if he can hear that,' sneered Teddy, earning a look of approval from Xevera. 'Honestly, you two should've been in Slytherin.' The two gave him dark looks and he let out a nervous laugh, 'Kidding, love you guys.'

'As if, those two would tolerate and love the shit out of them. You should be looking at this guy.' Mia smiled at James. In complete honesty, if you said James was in Slytherin to someone who didn't know he had been sorted into Gryffindor, they would've believed you.

He had dark hair that spiked up a bit, but in a a way much more controllable than Harry's, something that Ginny had been greatful for when he was growing up. He then had deep emerald, almond shaped eyes, and a very angular jaw, giving him a look that as he got older would win the hearts of many. He had an almost menacing look.

Then there was the fact he could be a total dolt, not unlike most of the boys. 'I'm not that bad am I?'

'Mate, I'll put it this way, you're as bad as Scor, Xeno, Mel, and me.'

'Oh well that's not too bad.' Mia handed him a disbelieving look, that was as bad as you could get, although mind you, they weren't actually mean, so that most likely lessened it. 'You five are the most outrageous lot in school!'

'And you're not?' She quirked an eyebrow at Xeno, and then smirked. 'Touché.'

'Okay, seriously? Do you all lose focus that quickly? Where's Scor!' Everyone started throwing things out there like gnoming. 'Maybe his parents picked him up personally?'

'Don't be ridiculous.'

'He could just be riding with other people.'

'As if.'

'Well hey, maybe he's with Kleo.'

'Can't be, Kleo's in his own compartment, sleeping. He put a charm on it so no one could come in.'

'JAMES!'

'What?'

'We were wondering about Kleo too!'

'Well how was I supposed to know.'

'Ugh. That crosses out that idea.'

'Maybe he's going home to see his parents.' Everyone turned to look at Xeno dubiously. 'Are you that big of a thick head?'

'What?' Xevera rolled her eyes, muttering, 'Useless,' under her breath. 'If he was going home to see his parents, he'd be with us then, wouldn't he?' She said, exasperated. 'Is he spending the holiday with us?' Mia thought aloud, but everyone simply shook their heads, that is except Xeno, since he wasn't part of the family.

'Well, I guess we'll just have to wait for a letter from him.' None of them liked the idea, but it was the best option they had. 'Hello everybody!' A smartly dressed Albus came in, pushing Xeno's feet to the ground, ('Hey!') and sat down there, between Teddy's feet, Mia, and James. 'Who invited you?' Albus wore a smirk, pointing at Xevera. _They look so much alike in their expressions,_ thought Mia.

James threw an accusing look at Xevera, to which she snorted, 'Well you didn't reject it, you were right there.' Mia cleared her throat, trying to clear the tension, 'How are you Albus.' He turned to look at her, his face going prunish, 'Fine.'

'What have you been up to?'

'You saw me yesterday didn't you? And what was I up to? Nothing. It's 11:53 right now, meaning it's been aproximately thirteen hours, in which I slept, woke up, ate breakfast and got on the train, and joined you. So nothing has changed. So what am I up to? Nothing. You just ruined the trip for me, stupid girl.' And with that he got up and left.

It was silent for a moment, until Xeno said, 'No offense, but your brothers kind of a smartars.'

'Yeah….'

'Oh he's not that bad.'

'Xevera!'

'Well come on, he's really sweet. He's only being mean because of your…. Interesesting appearance. I mean come on, look at you.'

'Yeah, and I wonder who caused that.'

'I'm sure George will fix it.' James reassured.

'And besides, I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it!'

* * *

Well George did get a kick out of it. He and Angelina came to get all of the kids from the station, and burst out laughing, slapping Xevera and Fred on the back. 'All in a days work,' Xevera had grinned. They had told Mia it was a pleasure to meet her, George having great difficulty in doing so without laughing. In the car ride, he had assured her that he was in fact very pleased to meet her.

Victoire, Lulu, and Bridget had all stood there awkwardly, and when Victoire introduced them, they shook their hands, dazzling the couple with bright white smiles. 'Wow, I'm so glad you all have so many new friends, all of you guys. Scorpius, then Xeno, and now Bridget and Lulu!' Angelina had cooed, tearing up slightly.

'All right, keep your hair on.'

By the time they left the station, Angelina must've hit George at least ten times.

* * *

'All right, everyone, come around, come around!' Everyone gathered around , who was holding a very long roll of parchment. She and didn't look much different since the war. Their hair was almost as red as ever, the only difference it seemed was they were a little slower, and more crinkley. This was Molly's favorite time of the year. 'I have the room arrangements here! There is absolutely no changing it, I've already decorated it to personal taste!' She giggled a bit at this, shocking all of her children, since she sounded like a young girl. 'Okay! We're starting the second floor here! When I start, it'll be the room nearest the stairway, on the right, then the one of the left, second on the right, and so on and so forth. Alright,' she let out a small cough, peering through her reading glasses. 'Percy and Audrey, we have smaller beds in there for your little ones. George and Angelina,' George walked over and slapped Percy on the back. 'Looks like we're going to be neighbors, brother!' Percy tried his hardest not to groan.

'Bill and Fleur, and then and myself. Onto the third floor now. Same type of thing as the last one. We'll start off with Hermione and Ron, then we'll have Harry and Ginny. After that, we have Hugo and Albus, and then Rose and Lily.' She looked just over the rim of her glasses at them, 'So I don't want to hear about any trouble.' She seemed to be looking at Hugo and Albus in particular.

'Third floor, there are more rooms there, We're going to have Dominique, paired up with Bridget, then Louis and Xeno. Did I say that right? Err, following we'll have James and Teddy, then Fred and Sam. Oh dear I am getting old, aren't I? What have we here, oh yes, Charlie and Blair, I felt I needed some adults on that floor. Nymphadora, you'll have a room to yourself.' She let out a large sigh, seeming almost wiped out from having to read this long list.

'Now we have the fifth floor, finally. We have the four girls left don't we,' she looked over at them with sparkling eyes, not sensing the current desperate prayers that were running through their minds. 'We have, oh god, I can't read this, Teddy, be a dear, read this will you?'

'Course.' She pointed out where she had left off, and he smiled at her and nodded, 'Okay we have, … Oh… um..' his eyes widened, and he pulled at the collar of his Gryffindor quidditch t-shirt. 'So, it's going to be, Xevera, and Victoire. Leaving Mia and Lulu.'

In that instance, all four girls hearts dropped, but quickly rcovered facially. Teddy looked up, mouthing, "Sorry."

'I'm so, SO sorry.' James was currently helping Xevera lug her stuff upstairs. So far, if was a journey of huffing and puffing. 'This holiday's not quite living up to expectations, is it?'

'Apparently not. I mean, at least she's letting us put your stuff in your room before she goes up?'

'Oh yeah, she's an angel.' They were quiet again as they passed the third floor. 'Have you been to your room yet?'

'No, Teddy hasn't either.'

'I guessed, since he grabbed Mia the second he read our death sentences.'

'Oh, do I sense a hint a jealousy?' She scoffed, taking the first step past the fourth floor. 'I'm not jealous that the ars face helped her instead of me. I just don't get why she was seen as being more upset than I was.'

'But she's with _Lulu!_'

'Fine so she gets the wicked witch of the west, and I get , doesn't make it any worse than mine!'

'You serve a fair point, but her gold stripes seemed to be turning green.' Xevera looked up, eyes gleaming, 'Was she really?' She pulled her trunk up the last step and grumbled, 'Wish I had seen that. Going from Gryffindor to Christmas.' James gave out a laugh, leave it to Xevera to be more concerned about a practical joke than her friend. 'Wanna see if we can slip some patties to Albus and Hugo?'

'Yeah, that ought to set the little buggers straight. Anhow I-' But before she could finish, she let out an Earth shattering scream. James could only thank god that they were on the fifth floor, nobody would be able to hear it. 'Hush, hush what's wrong,' he slapped a hand over her mouth, as she frantically flung about, trying to yank his hand off. 'WILL you calm down!'

He finally caught sight of the fact that her hand was being flung in one general direction, her room. He opened the door with caution, by her reaction there might be a wild hippogriff in there.

When he cracked the door open, his jaw dropped, along with his hand from her mouth. When Mrs. Weasley said she had personalized the room, she hadn't been kidding. It had to have all been done with magic, with a simple undo charm on it, because the extravagancy was insane. The room looked to be split in half, one was painted a baby pink, and the other painted granny smith and white sriped, obviously Xevera's side of the room. It was covered in posters of muggle bands, some of which he recognized, since Teddy seemed to be infatuated with muggle music these days.

Her bed was draped in violet covers and had fuzzy looking stuffed creatures all over her bed in all different colors. Victoire's room was all pink. Pink creatures, pink walls, even the paintings on her walls were pink, this included her dresser and night stand. had really gone all out for this. George must've taught some sort of conjuring charm for the furniture. Xevera let out a shrill, girly squeal, dropping her trunk in the process, and ran over to the bed and dived into it.

Coincidentally she had dropped the trunk right where his foot would've been if he hadn't moved it in time. 'That is probably, the girliest thing I have ever heard you do.' She simply lifted her head from the a pillow and stuck her toungue out at him. 'Well,' he sighed, bringing the trunk over to her bed, and placing his hands on his hips, 'As lovely as this has all been, I need to go and get my own trunk.'

* * *

Mia was lying on Teddy's bed in awe, staring at all of the muggle band posters. Her room had pictures and paintings of puppies, her favorite animals in the whole wide world. Teddy was currently putting his clothes in a dresser, 'I didn't know you liked muggle music.' He looked over at her, complexed, 'You didn't? Really? I'm surprised, I would think one of my best friends would know.'

'Don't make me feel worse.' His face turned solemn, and he went back to folding. 'I'm sorry.'

'Why is god out to get me this week? First the skin thing, now this?'

'At least George said he thinks he'll be able to get your skin back to normal. And hey, you look very festive.' She turned her head to glare at him. 'Too soon?'

'I feel awful for Xevera, she's with Victoire.'

'Yeah, and your with the demon sex god.'

'WHAT god?'

'Nothing.'

'That's what I thought.'

'Changing the subject, didn't you say she talked to you. You have something or another coming your way? Aren't you worried?'

'Honestly, the list of worries got too long a while ago, so I just stopped keeping track of what makes me want to cry in a corner, and why.' He gave her a dissaproving look, he didn't like it when either of the girls took on this kind of attitude. 'You sure you're gonna be okay?'

'I'll be fi-' But at that moment, James burst into the room, having a temper tantrum of his own.

He threw himself onto the bed, seeming to be crying. Of course he wasn't actually crying, just over dramatizing. He started talking into the covers, completely muffled and befuddled sounding. There was suddenly a noise like a blowing nose, and Teddy seemed to be lose it. 'Oi! I don't want any bogies on my covers! Blow your problems into your own covers! What's your problem?'

'His folks.' Xevera stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame, her feet on James's trunk. 'The letter from them, he never read it.' Mia did an, 'OOH!' While Teddy just muttered, 'Oh snap.'

James lifted his head, red in the face. 'They haven't sent me ANY letters since! They've barely acknowledged my presence.'

'They seemed alright to me.'

'Shut up!' Slightly taken aback, Xevera turned away, fed up. 'Look, mate, if anything, it seems like they're worried.' Everyone looked at him in confusion. 'Well, I mean, why don't you talk to them? I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation.' James sent a hand flying through his dark hair. 'Yeah, I guess.' Teddy slapped him on the back, chuckling, 'There we go.'

* * *

'I really can't believe this.' Victoire looked at Xevera's side of the room, hands on her hips. Lulu and Bridgette sat on Victoire's bed, some of the meanest girls in school, looking scared out of their wits. 'What the hell was she thinking? Putting Xevera and I together? And then Lulu with Mia! I mean, jeez, you have to be with my sister, Bridget!' Victoire was well known throughout the girl's group to be the quietest usually when it came to bashing people, but truth be told, she could be scary as hell when she wanted to.

'Uhm, your grandmum made the rooms look really nice,' Lulu piped up, frightened of the red faced part veela, a rare occurance. Victoire seemed to calm down a bit, looking at her and Xevera's room. She sighed, rolling her eyes, 'Yeah, you're right. But still!' And she was off again. 'Bridget I'm so sorry you have to be with my little sister! And on the same floor as my brother on top of it all!'

'I thought you and your sister got along.'

'Yeah well, when everyone started fighting, we became a little more distant.'

'So she sided with them?'

'No, she just didn't want to get into the middle… That's Xevera's fault too! I have to add that to the list.' She frantically went to her suitcase. The other two girls could only see things flying into the air, and once in a while, strands of silvery hair. 'Aren't you overreacting just a bit?' Victoire's head popped up, the list of Xevera's faults in hand. She was a bit surprised, usually the girls did anything to show how horrible Victoire's old friends were.

'What do you mean?' The two girls looked at each other, sharing a look that only those two could understand. Lulu was the first to say something, pushing her long black hair over her shoulder. 'Well, we just notice that you seem to have a particular thing against Xevera. I mean, you seem just as close to Mia, if not closer. Why Xevera?'

'And besides that, you seem to have taken this a little far. Making a list and stuff? It's weird.' Victoire looked down at her sheet. She had written an awful lot. "1. She's ignorant of peoples feelings. 2. Xevera supports the idea of making things to harm others. 3. Xevera keeps secrets." And the list went on and on. She stuttered a bit, saying 'But-but.'

Lulu and Bridgette just stared back at her, looking almost worried. 'Is there a reason you have something against HER?' Victoire got up and sat in a fluffy beanbag, shifting uncomfortably under the two girl's gazes. 'I mean, it's just-' She choked on her own words, avoiding her friend's faces by playing with the fuzz on her beanbag.

'Xevera let go.' Lulu and Bridgette surprisingly enough did want to help and understand, but they were having a hard time doing so. 'She was my friend before any of them… Well not including Teddy and James. I mean, they're my cousins, like that wasn't by choice. Plus they're both boys. But anyways, she let go before any of them. She didn't bother to try and keep me, really, she pushed me away.' She felt her self control kick in as she near cried. 'She gave reasons to not keep me around, she didn't defend me, she helped point out reasons I wasn't "worthy." The person who had known me the longest, the person who knew me so well, didn't seem to care.'

Victoire could feel all her long held anger begin to bubble and boil inside of her, her hands shaking. She pushed her wavy blonde hair behind an ear with a trembling hand. 'She most likely never cared. She doesn't value me. She never did I bet.' She clenched her fist, and looked up, her eyes red. Bridget was horrified to see that the makeup she had worked so hard on had come off, but decided not to mention it.

'Look, Victoire-'

'No! I'm not done!'

'But Vicki-'

'Listen to me, you've said it, they're all worthless, every last one of them. And she-she-she's most likely the ring leader of the whole thing.'

'I don't think right now-'

'And you know what? I really hate her.' And what frightened Lulu and Bridgette at that moment, was that she seemed to really mean it. 'I really, really, really hate her, and she could go and die for all I care. Prolly gonna have a shit life like her parents anyways.'

It was at that moment that Victoire looked up, and with a sickening feeling, registered what her eyes saw, as she looked on Xevera's side of the room. Teddy was standing right in front of Xevera's bed, his eyes like saucers, and his hair a fiery red, his lips parted slightly. Xevera stood by her dresser, holding what looked like a record. Her hair was deep green, flecked with gray, and as she turned around, she wore a smile, even though her hair betrayed her. She was holding a white album, that had "The Beatles" written in small grey lettering.

'Here Teddy, "Honey Pie" is on here, along with "Dear Prudence", "Blackbird," and another whole load of stuff.' Teddy just looked at her, shock written across his face, but she made her way out of the room before anyone could say anything.

Everyone stayed frozen, not making a sound. Teddy turned to look at Victoire, and a look of disgust rose onto his face. He would've very much liked to slap her, but instead he stormed out of the room slamming the door.

* * *

'She said WHAT?'

'Yeah, we were outside Xevera's room when she began talking about how "Xevera pushed her away."'

**Flashback**

'Come on Teddy, hurry up, do you want to borrow my "White album" or not?' Teddy came up behind Xevera on the long, dwindling stairway that lead to her room, panting. 'How do you,' Teddy began, but held up a finger as he doubled over, catching his breath. She crossed her arms, feeling extremely impatient. 'How in Merlin's name do you get up and down these stairs without passing out every flight?'

'I'm not a pathetic loser, that's how, now come on.'

'Hang on, do you hear something?' Xevera tilted her head to the side, her hair growing and straightening, turning a bright lime green. Her brows knit together as she strained to hear, but she could in fact hear something. Xevera looked back at him and nodded, silently ushering him into the hall.

The door to her room was open, and they walked down the hall cautiously, wincing at every creak the floor made. Teddy took a peek around the doorway, and immediately snapped back against the wall. He had seen Victoire looking at Lulu and Bridget, who were sitting on her bed.

Xevera gave Teddy a questioning look, but he just held a finger to his lips, waiting. 'Xevera let go.' Victoire's voice trailed out of the room, and through their ears. From then on they listened, Xevera's hair changing by the minute, her form stiffening. When they reached, "She never cared," Xevera just said, her voice controlled, 'Let's go.' And walked into the room, as he trailed tentively, not sure he would be looking forward to this. He saw Lulu and Bridgette's eyes widen as they came into the room, and suddenly, everything went in slow motion.

Xevera was by her dresser, getting the album, and Victoire said spitefully, 'I really, really, really hate her, and she could go and die for all I care. Prolly gonna have a shit life like her parents anyways.' All Teddy could see was Xevera's body freeze, and next Victoire's eyes expand. He didn't quite know what to think or do, all he knew was that he wanted to get out of there before he slapped Victoire right across her face.

Before he could do anything, Xevera had shoved the album into his hands, and left. He almost spat at them, but decided against in. He would ruin Mrs. Weasley's lovely carpet.

**End of flashback**

James pulled up his hair, his face beginning to turn a light shade of pink. 'I swear to god, when I see her-'

'No, don't do anything.'

'And why shouldn't I?'

'Because do you really think Xevera would want you to make this your bussiness?' Teddy gave James a knowing look, and as much as James didn't like it, he knew Teddy was right. He dropped his head onto his pillow, staring at the ceiling.

_Why does Victoire have to be like this?_ He thought, absentmindedly feeling the corner of his pillow where the stiches met. _Why does she feel the need to make all of our lives miserable? And besides that, some of that is the biggest bullshit I've ever heard. None of us were defending her exactly… Except maybe Mia…. But that's not too surprising, I mean, she doesn't like getting rid of people…. _

'Do you want help with your parents or not?' James's thoughts were rudely interrupted by Xevera. Mia was polking him viciously. 'Ouch!' Mia rolled her eyes, 'Oh come on, it doesn't hurt.'

'Yes it does! Your nails are bloody sharp!'

'Come on,' and with that he was yanked out of his bed, Teddy was leaning in the door frame, bleary-eyed.

'What are you gonna do?' James was slightly worried now, as Xevera pulled Teddy down the stairs, who had a hard grip on James, bringing him into the train. Mia strode behind, smirking at James every time he gave her a vengeful glance. 'Nothing. Absolutely nothing.'

'It sure doesn't seem like nothing to me!' Teddy's hair had gone a bright orange, and at this point he had quit fighting Xevera's killer grip. James began to lose it when his mother and father came into view. 'Xevera, please-'

'SPIDERMONKEY!' Xevera ran at top speed towards Harry as he turned around, his green eyes changing dramatically in size. Ginny let out a shriek as Xevera pounced onto Harry, her arms wrapping around his neck, and her legs bent over his stretched out hands. He toppled over with a small yelp, Xevera on top. The three wanted to burst into laughter, but pretended to not take any notice turning away from the scene.

'Hi, Harry!' Harry got up with a small groan, clutching at his back. Ginny had gently lifted up Xevera. She didn't know why, but she liked her. 'Xevera, why?'

'I had to give my special friend a special greeting!' Harry tried to look greatful, but he seemded to be failing to do so. 'Where's Mia?'

'OH OH OH OH! HERE, HERE! SPIDER MONKEY!'

'NO!' But it was too late, as Mia jumped onto Harry the same way Xevera had, but this time he was slightly more prepared, as he managed to stay standing just barely. 'Can we not do that?' The two girls smiled peevishly, trying to refrain from laughing. 'Hey, where's my hello?' They turned to see Ron, his arms stretched, 'Oh, hi Ron.'

'Hi.' The girls said this with bored expressions, uninterested tones, and turned back to Harry. Of course though, it was Ron Weasley, he wouldn't take that. 'Hey! What's wrong with me?'

'Oh, Ron, we love you, we just don't find you very interesting.'

'Yeah, we find you to be a walking danger zone, no offense.' Xevera added, shrugging. Ron began to stutter, 'I am not!'

'Oh Ronald, yes you are.' Hermione walked in, looking as beautiful as ever, her hair now slick and shiny. 'Hermione!' Mia and Xevera ran at Hermione, and even Teddy and James now joined. 'Who am I? Scruge?' Teddy and Xevera stuck their heads out for a moment to give him a good look up and down, and nodded. 'If that's how you want to look at it,' Xevera smiled. 'That's completely unfair!'

'I've got my fans, and you've got yours!'

'Yeah, _we_ love you Uncle Ron!' Victoire, Lulu, and Bridgette all ran up to Ron to hug him, long black hair, silvery blonde hair, and brown hair mixing together. Victoire came out, giving a smug smile. None of the adults seemed to notice, except for Ginny, she had never truly liked Victoire. She reminded Ginny too much of Fleur, who despite her intentions, could be a royal pain in the ars sometimes. Ginny observed the look she was shooting Xevera and Mia, who she had favored from the start. She couldn't see their faces, but she could see a small lock of Xevera's hair turn a deep forest green. 'Oy, Victoire, wipe that sick look off of your face.'

That's probably why she got along so well the two girls, like them, she never thought before she spoke. She looked at Harry, whose eyes had grown to twice their normal size, she didn't want to see what, since Harry's face seemed to have broken out in sweat in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately though, the situation was a bit like train wreck. It's too awful to look at, but you can't help but look, it's too rich.

With every last bit of energy she had, she cranked her head to look, and the sight wan't very pretty. Hermione's face had gone blank, she seemed to not know what to think. The kid's faces were pretty priceless, as most of them were obviously trying to keep themselves from laughing, even Dominique who was sitting off with George. Ginny just counted her lucky stars that Bill and Fleur weren't in the room, she really would be dead. The adults did seem to look fairly disapproving, and although Ron's face had gone bright red with anger, Ginny couldn't have cared less. She could take him down any day.

What caught her eye was when she looked at George, he had a large grin stretched across his face, and winked. Ginny had always looked up to Fred and George when she was younger. They were the only ones to truly break their mother's rules. Sure, Bill refused to cut his hair, and Charlie went off to Romania to work with dragons, but that was getting dangerously close to the line, or merely sticking a toe across. Fred and George however, got on a couple of firebolts, and went full speed ahead, and they always looked out for Ginny when she was younger. Getting George's approval meant the world, and she smiled back, a small one though, she'd never be as daring as George.

Unfortunately it seemed Ginny had miscounted, because there was a large shriek that couldn't ave been completely human, and Ginny quickly understood why Harry had seemed so ruffled. "What deed you just say?" Fleur was standing in the doorway, and soon stormed over to her daughter and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. 'I-I-'

'How dair you! What has Victoire evair done to you?'

'Yeah Ginny.' If Ginny could've punched Ron square in the jaw right then, she would've, but she was fairly frightened of Fleur. Being part veela and all… 'Mum, Aunt Ginny – If she even deserves that title – was being mean to me!' Victoire sobbed into her mum's shirt, as Fleur stroked her hair, shooting glares at Ginny. 'Come on James, what's on your mind.' Bill had now entered the room, and it was at times like this that his scars made him look very threatening. Ginny looked over at her son, she didn't know quite what to do. She knew that as a responsible mother she should give James a hard glare, but on the other hand she knew he must have good reason to be glaring at Victoire.

James's jaw stayed set for a moment, and then he said quietly, 'Uncle Bill, you're amazing, but I can't say the same for my cousin. If she even deserves that title.' James mimicked what Victoire had done earlier, concerning his mother. 'What eez thees! Why arh you all beeyeeng so mean to Victoire!' Fleur cried out, holding her daughter suffocatingly close. Lulu had been watching this little family squabble silently, and decided to make some input finally. 'Victoire has done nothing wrong. If you want to blame anyone for this whole mess, blame Xevera.' Eveyone's eyes darted over to the girl whose hair had just gone white, and quickly went to black.

Over the period of time that this whole thing was going on, the whole family had entered the very large living room, and when Lulu had drawled out Xevera's name, a piece of her hair wrapped around her finger, Angelina had to keep Fred and George sitting down, as well as herself. Fleur's head whipped around to look at Xevera, 'I knew eet! You wair alwayz trouble, right from ze vairy beegineeng!' Xevera looked absolutely speechless. 'What did she do?' Ron looked enfuriated. He had always preferred Victoire over Xevera, which wasn't strange. He never liked someone who could put him in his place, Hermione was an acception.

'Well,' Lulu cleared her throat and gained a little posture, clearly enjoying the attention. 'Victoire started hanging out with us because all of them kicked her out, and Xevera was the ring leader of that all, she made sure that Victoire was kicked out. She then proceeded to constantly humiliate Victoire and talk about her. She's been making it her goal to push Victoire and Dominique apart. We even heard her talking about Victoire, saying she really hated her, and that she would probably have a shit life because she's stupid. She even said that Victoire could die and she wouldn't even care.'

Lulu stepped back, leaning on her right leg, twirling her hair and wearing a very self-satisfied expression. Everyone's expression was one of shock, all for different reasons, except for Bridgette, Lulu, and Victoire, all of whom looked very defiant. Though internally, Victoire felt a little sick. Xevera was looking at Victoire, very tight lipped, her already enormous eyes twice their usual size, and looking simply heartbroken. She looked away, and Victoire couldn't be sure whether it was because she didn't like looking at hurt people, or because she felt that it was her fault.

Fleur seemed to come out of nowhere, her voice even, but steaming. 'Get out.'

'Fleur-'

'I said get out.' Bill didn't press any further, and stayed silent like everyone else. Whether they were or weren't in agreement with Fleur nobody could tell at that moment. Ginny wanted to cry as Xevera pulled up her pants, grinned and said, 'Thank you everyone for being so gracious as to have invited me, I'll go and get my stuff and get going.' She then turned to Victoire and cocked her head to the side. Victoire held her chin up, as her mother placed her hands firmly on her shoulders.

'Victoire, I hope you have a lovely holiday, and are able to sort out this… issue.' And with that she turned around, her hair back to it's normal brown, in a thick, straight shiny sheet trailing her.

Teddy was the first to break the silence, making his way past Xeno, James, and Mia. He stopped to look at Victoire, just like earlier, looking disgusted, but like earlier as well, he didn't say anything, just stormed out.

'Oh, and Mia had her fair share too.' Lulu couldn't seem to get enough. Mia just let out a sigh and put up a hand to Fleur before she could say anything, 'Don't worry, don't worry, I'm going.'

'Stephanie you don't have to leave.' Someone had seemed to finally have gotten the courage to say something, and that was Angelina. 'Teddy will come back soon with Xevera.'

* * *

'Xevera! XEVERA!'

'What?' Teddy stumbled into Xevera's room, completely out of breath. Walking earlier had nearly knocked him out. Running was just a simple death sentence. Xevera was sitting on her bed, her portable record player sitting in front of her, looking completely calm. 'Don't leave just because of that whole thing.' Xevera actually started laughing, and before Teddy could get confused, she said, 'Don't worry, I'm not going to leave just because of something the wicked bitch of the west said. Yeah, I thought it was more appropriate than, "Witch."' She looked back down at the record player, and that's when he noticed a record sleeve sitting next to her.

It had a picture of people dancing all over it, and it was clearly drawn, tinted orange. Across it it said, "Roaring '20s Jazz." He closed the door behind him, and went over to the bed, sitting opposite of her. He stared at a couple of the posters of the wall. Xevera murmered, 'Don't worry they'll come around.' It then occurred to him how ridiculous it was that she be trying to comfort him.

He looked over at her noncholantly, so she didn't notice his observing her. She had a flexible build, but was still hour glass shaped. Her hair was still brown, streching just below her shoulders, but it was a bit curlier now, and didn't look quite as sleek as it had a few minutes ago. She had her knees pulled up, each on either side, so she looked a bit like a frog. He never could understand how she was able to do all of the freaky positions that she did.

Teddy and James had always been fairly tall, or at least to themelves they were, so when they got to Hogwarts and they were fairly average height compared to everyone, it was strange. Sure Victoire was maybe only half an inch smaller, but she was always very tall, especially considering how tall her mother and father were. But Teddy hadn't started really growing yet, and in a year or two's time the girls would come to the end of their rope.

Currently he was taller, since Xevera was pretty short, but he didn't tower over her or anything. 'Aren't you going to play the record?'

'Nah, I'll take a rain check on that.' She flipped the record in her hands for a minute, then slipped the record back inside.

* * *

'Well Aunt Hermione sided with us, calling Ron ridiculous, and Ginny did the same, except she bashed him upside the head. George did the same as her, except he called him a git. Percy sided with Victoire, and Charlie rolled his eyes, saying, "Typical." Then-'

'Did Charlie side with us?' Xeno, Sam, Fred, Teddy, James, Xevera, Mia, Lily, Hugo, and Dominique were all sitting in Teddy and James's room, discussing the going ons of that day. Everyone had had dinner that evening in their own rooms, since it would be far too much work to set up a large table, and that would be saved for Christmas and New Year's. Of course the big blow up played a role, but no one was going to say this.

It was nearing ten thirty, and all of the children that were on Xevera and Mia's side were in the boy's bedroom. Dominique was good friends with Xevera, and seemed to think her sister was a total bitch, so she had come, followed by Lily, who just knew her brother was on that side. She also liked the two girls. No one really knew why Hugo was on that side, considering both his father and sister were on the opposing side. His only motive could've been that his mother was there. Apparently Lily had told Xevera though that Hugo had a crush on Mia, which sent Xevera into a state where she couldn't breathe for about 5 minutes.

So far everyone had figured out the people on Victoire's side were Ron, Rose, Albus, Louis, ('The only reason they're over there is because they like looking at Lulu and Bridgette's arses.' – Dominique,) Percy, and Fleur. On their side they had George, Angelina, Ginny, Hermione, and all the other children gathered in the room. Most people had chosent to stay out of it, although you could tell they were still a little biased towards one side.

Fleur and Bill had had a big blow up, consisting of Fleur screaming at Bill that he wasn't doing his duty of a father and protecting his daughter. Bill had apparently calmly replied that he couldn't protect Victoire from herself, which Fleur hadn't seemed to understand, and made her even angrier. Bill had said he couldn't pick a side if he wasn't even sure what made more sense yet, and he wouldn't side with Victoire just for the sake of doing so.

* * *

Over the next couple of days, things smoothed out a bit. The adults became less involved, all calming down and realizing how petty they were to be siding with children. They all apologized to one another, and to the children. However this didn't solve the dispute between Victoire and her cronies and the others. Xevera hadn't spoken a word to Victoire, and neither had Mia to Lulu.

Christmas morning finally rolled around, and at 5 o clock AM, Xevera and Teddy were wide awake, sitting on one of the couches downstairs. Molly was smart enough to put spells on the room with the tree and presents so that none of the smaller children could make an attempt at opening their presents early.

However she never stopped to think that any of the older children would so stupid as to actually try, which is what Teddy and Xevera had attempted. Clearly it had not been very successful.

'Did you sleep at all?'

'No, did you?'

'No. Why didn't you wake up Mia.' Xevera just turned and cocked her eyebrow at Teddy. 'Oh yeah, right, not a morning person.'

'Speaking of which I thought James would've been up, not you.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Xevera gave a shrug at Teddy's overreaction. 'It's nothing.' Teddy continued to stare at her, and when she tried looking away, and eventually turned back, he was still looking. She gave a sigh, 'I dunno, I've never thought of you as the risk taker.'

'I take risks!' Xevera began to laugh, tilting her head back, as she began to laugh so hard it became almost silent, until she sat forward again. She looked over and Teddy had an incredulous look. 'Oh you were serious! I'm sorry! No, no… I mean… You make nasty comments.'

'I don't take risks do I?' Xevera gave Teddy a sympathetic look. 'You take risks, just not like James.' She noticed some of the hairs at the back of his head begin to go a deep blue. 'You take risks, really you do. God knows you get into detention all the time.'

'Not as much as you and James and Fred and that lot.'

'You got the nerve to talk to that cute Ravenclaw before we left.'

'James is on first name basis with her.'

'You sneak into Honedukes all the time and steal free stuff.'

'James steals. I pay.' That's when Teddy received a smack upside the head. 'Oi!'

'You need to get yourself together! You are just as much as a risktaker as the rest of us! The reason that James gets into more trouble is because he's a jackass and he's a dumbshit. James does mean things, and says mean things. You… Okay well you say mean things to Filch but that's different. But you just say witty stuff! That's better than James badmouthing people. And you probably take more risks than James, you're just smart enough to get away with it.' Xevera smiled at Teddy, trying to get him upbeat. It was Christmas for Merlin's sake. 'You're the nice one Teddy.' She nudged with her shoulder, giving him a warm smile.

'You think?'

'I know.' And that's when Teddy returned the smile. They smiled at each other for a moment, before returning to their regular position of staring intently at the door. 'Is it ever anything special.'

'Nah, not really. It's just a tree with some home made décor and a few strings of lights. Same thing every year. What's christmas like muggle-style?'

'Well, we're Jewish, so-'

'No Christmas?' Xevera smirked, 'Actually I was gonna say that it's weird that we celebrate Christmas and none of the Jewish holidays. We've never been the religious type and,' Xevera stretched out on the couch, her legs on top of Teddy's, and arms behind her head. 'It's really never anything special. I get my gifts from you guys, but I do that in my room. My parents never really got used to the whole "magic" thing. So it's just a sweater from mum, or some necklace from dad.' She gave noncholant shrug, her eyes closed, 'Nothing special.'

'Wouldn't you normally spend christmas with your dad?' Xevera's eyes opened a bit, and Teddy immediately sensed he had asked the wrong question. 'Yeah.'

'Why.' He made a mental note to slap himself later. 'Things.' And he didn't press the subject.


End file.
